Harry Potter and The Hero's Pledge
by madcrazystoryteller
Summary: Harry returns to Privet Drive for his summer break after having witnessed the resurrection of Lord Voldemort only to be confronted by a strange visitor who makes him realize the truth and reality about being a hero and a warrior.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE – SUMMER BREAK BEGINS WITH A SURPRISE VISITOR

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

The first thought that came to Harry's mind after he had settled down in the backseat of his uncle's car was relief; and the mere realization of the said emotion caused harry to shudder involuntarily. No, he was most certainly not relieved to be back in the presence of his last living relatives, namely the Dursleys. For since the time Harry could remember, the Dursleys had never made a secret of the fact that they hated his very existence in their otherwise normal lives. Though that hatred had somewhat been dampened since he got his acceptance letter from Hogwarts four years ago.

The change was largely due to the fear of the consequences they would be facing if Harry's friends and well wishers were to find out the usual way in which the Dursleys used to treat Harry. For Harry was no normal fourteen year old. He was a wizard who was home after completing his fourth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. But that was not all, for he wasn't any ordinary wizard either. He was Harry Potter - 'The boy who lived'. A moniker which Harry hated almost as much as he hated his relatives, for it was the title which the people of Wizarding Britain had given him for surviving the attack by one of the most feared dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort.

It was on that fateful Halloween night of 1981 when Lord Voldemort had killed his parents and had then turned his wand on baby Harry, in order to do a clean job of finishing the entire family that things went pear shaped for Lord Voldemort. For a curse that was considered the most unforgivable of all curses known to wizard-kind and a curse for which there was no known shield except maybe physical barriers, had failed for the first time in the known history of all wizard kind. For the killing curse which was considered to be Lord Voldemort's signature curse, had failed to kill Harry and had somehow rebounded back on the Dark Lord, killing him and thus making baby Harry the first known survivor of the killing curse with nothing but a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead; a feat which till date has never happened again.

Though it was not that which caused harry relief, rather the fact that the Dark Lord who was said to have died that Halloween night, all those years ago was finally back from the dead. At least metaphorically, Harry mentally corrected himself, for he knew that there is no spell or potion or ritual which can bring back the dead, as Professor Dumbledore had told him back in his first year when he had discovered Harry sitting in front of the Mirror of Erised.

The relief though was more for the fact that for once they knew what they were facing thought Harry. Ever since his initiation or re-acquaintance back into the wizarding world, every school year at Hogwarts had somehow culminated into some event which led to an attempt to bring Lord Voldemort back into a human form. The Sorcerer's Stone in the first year, the Basilisk in the second year, the discovery and escape of Peter Pettigrew, a former friend of his parents who had turned traitor and had let to their death and lastly this past year with the whole Tri-wizard Tournament debacle which ended with death of a fellow champion Cedric Diggory and the resurrection of Lord Voldemort.

Harry's countenance immediately sobered up a little as he thought of Cedric and the way he died. No matter what anyone said and no matter how much he knew the realty, Harry somehow blamed himself for Cedric's death. It wasn't that he did not want to see the real picture, just that Cedric's death made all the terror and loss that much more real. Lord Voldemort had comeback and had already caused the death of a young man, who had a life full of promises ahead of him.

What made Harry angry the most was not that Voldemort was back, though that was certainly one of the more important components to his anger but rather the arrogance and absurdity with which the British Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge had refused to acknowledge the truth. The man had flat out refused to acknowledge anything Harry and Headmaster Dumbledore had tried to tell him regarding the return of Lord Voldemort and what was more, he in his ever present paranoia had destroyed the only available piece of evidence to confirm the facts of the entire incident by getting the fake Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody aka Bartemius Crouch Junior kissed by the Dementors before he could be taken into custody and questioned by the Aurors.

So now Harry was to be stuck at Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey with his hated relatives, till the start of his next school term on the first of September, while Voldemort was out there getting back into the scheme of things. Although Harry knew that Professor Dumbledore would do his level best to make the Minister accept the reality of the situation; after all he was Albus Dumbledore who was not just the headmaster of Europe's premier Wizarding School but a man who had dueled and defeated the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelward at the height of his power. Add to that his position of Britain's Chief Warlock and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, the man could literally say anything he wanted and the public would be more than willing to go along with it. Despite knowing all this, something told Harry that convincing the Minister would be a difficult task indeed.

As he finished that line of thought process, Harry was forced to think about his list days back at Hogwarts post the third task. Though nobody said anything to him in person, Harry could feel the doubt and curiosity of the entire student body barring his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, about the actual events of the third task. Harry did not think too much of it as he was certain he would have been equally intrigued had he not been a part of it all. After all it was not every day that four champions went into a maze in order to compete and two of them coming out in the end with one being dead and the other being battered and bruised, carrying the news that one of the most feared dark lord of recent times, who was thought to be dead was for all intent and purposes back from the dead. In fact Harry was sure that the situation would have been comical, had it been part of some dratted adventure novel. Alas such was the irony of his life.

As his uncle finally pulled the car to a stop, Harry ended his mental musings and got out of the car quickly carrying Hedwig's cage making sure not to disturb his sleeping familiar and pulled his trunk out of the car's boot and walked in hoping to catch a quick nap before dinner. As quickly and as noiselessly as possible while carrying a cage with a sleeping owl inside and a heavy school trunk, Harry made his way up the stairs to his room before his uncle could realize that Harry was carrying his things up to his room rather than put them inside the cupboard under the stairs and also to may be have that lucky nap he so wanted before dinner. When he arrived to his room, Harry opened the door with a real enthusiasm only to have it all vanish upon discovering that he apparently had a visitor waiting to greet him.

Sitting on the only old and worn down chair and looking out of the window was a person he had never seen before in his life. Finally the man finally realized that he had company and turned toward Harry with a hint of amusement in his eyes and said, "well don't just stand in there, come on in and settle down."

So surprised was Harry that he asked the first question that came to his lips and not with a hint of respect or curiosity either.

"Who are you?"

A/N: Well first things first, Hello! This is my first fanfic ever. This is story about Harry realizing the true extent of his destiny and embarking upon a journey toward its fulfillment. Yes, this is a fanfic which has Harry and Daphne pairing as one of its main elements, but you will have to wait a bit to read Daphne's part as it comes a little later in the story.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO – I TALK ABOUT MY LIFE WITH A COMPLETE STRANGER

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

Harry was not sure what he was expecting his visitor to do, but the response that he got for his question was far from anything he had imagined. The moment he had finished asking his question out aloud, his visitor's face displayed a sense of amusement as if he were enjoying a very private joke and then said, "Well that's the question isn't it? Who am I?"

When Harry remained still and unresponsive, still looking a bit apprehensive, his visitor in a very conversational yet appreciative tone said, "I have to say I'm impressed Harry. Anyone else in your place would have been scared witless or would have started screaming by now. But you aren't anyone are you? And I promise you that I will answer all your questions truthfully, to the best of my knowledge and abilities but I ask you to be a little more patient and accepting of what I'm about to tell you."

Then pointing to the bed the visitor said, "It would be better if you got comfortable. I daresay it will be some time before we are done talking."

Harry looked at the man in front of him, noting the fact that he seemed absolutely at home. Though he did not seem too old, Harry would guess that he was nearly at the end of his twenties. The man in front of him was wearing a black leather biker jacket over a gray round neck t-shirt and a faded and worn out blue jeans along with black biker boots. Despite his modern and rebellious attire, what stood out about him the most were his kind yet sharp and penetrating, witty blue eyes, which were filled with specks of grey. Just the way he looked at you, made you wonder, whether he was looking at you or was he actually looking at the person who you really are, at your very soul. His marginally long black hair that was messily tousled rounded up his whole appearance giving him an intellectually lethargic aura.

Harry had not missed the fact that despite his surprising style of visit, the man genuinely seemed to want to talk to Harry about something on an equal level and not as if he was ordering a child around. Though he was not completely at ease, still Harry believed that he could at least hear what the man had to say.

Oh who was he kidding? He was more than intrigued and curious by now, as he was sure that if this was a onetime visit then this would be the only positive and normal conversation he would be having before meeting his friends. He was sure as hell that any conversation with the Dursleys would be far from normal and civil. So he went ahead and sat down on his bed as comfortable as he could while the man just looked at him calmly yet with a sense of understanding as if he was perfectly fine with Harry reacting the way he was.

As he became uncomfortable with the lasting silence Harry decided to break the silence with the most logical reason he could think of and said, "I'm sorry! I would offer you something to eat or drink but I really can't since you were here before we turned up. It would be a bit difficult to explain it to my relatives."

The man smiled as though he understood the reasoning and said, "I understand Harry and I'm sorry about the unconventional manner in which I visited but it was important that much I assure you."

Then with a genuine warmth and care that Harry did not expect from the man he asked, "But in case you are hungry and want to go grab yourself a quick bite or something, then by all means please carry on. I assure you, I won't be offended in the slightest, as I just had my lunch a little later than usual today."

When Harry confirmed that he was not hungry, the man got up and took out his wand and immediately Harry went for his wand as well. The man having noticed this, held up his hands in surrender and said, "I'm sorry Harry! That was very unwise of me to act without explaining what I was about to do. But I assure you, that if you will give me a moment, I will confirm that your fears though perfectly logical are unwanted for, at least in this case."

Seeing Harry's skeptical look, the man further said, "You can keep your wand pointed at me with the strongest curse you have in your arsenal ready on your lips, if that would please you."

Once he saw Harry do just that and indicating that he was ready, the man again held his wand properly and asked Harry in a perfectly normal tone, "Harry! I know that this house belongs to your relatives but as far as this room is concerned you were the first magical occupant of this room and as such the magic that resides within you and radiates from you makes you the magical guardian of this room and thus by extension the house. Now that is important because unless you completely acknowledge the fact that I'm allowed to do magic inside this room and this house with your permission, any magic I perform will be attributed to having come from your wand, leading to you being charged for the breach of underage magic law."

At Harry's outraged look, the Man chuckled a bit and said while nodding his head, "I know! It's completely illogical. I mean why would a young witch or wizard living in a muggle locality think about using magic when they are specifically told about the consequences of such action? And moreover what if you were to be attacked by another magical adult? He definitely won't be asking for your permission before he attacks you now would he?"

When Harry nodded tensely with barely suppressed anger, the man continued, "So irrespective of the illogical reasoning, any magic that is performed within this house without your complete agreement, whether it's an offensive curse or a mere day to day charm, it would be considered to have been done by you. Now that isn't to say that you are not allowed to defend yourself in case you were to be attacked and you do not have any adult witch or wizard nearby to protect you. In fact if I understand correctly, there is a small provision in the law that allows you to defend yourself whether you are in the magical world or a muggle neighborhood, if you were to be attacked. If the ministry feels that the reason behind you performing the magic was nothing other than self defense, then they let you walk away without so much as a warning. Look Harry, it's complicated and inefficient but it is still a law. So we are better off if we abide by it."

Harry was so shocked by the sheer stupidity and inefficiency of the law that it took him a few minutes to actually calm himself down. Now he understood why he had gotten that warning when Dobby, who was then employed with the Malfoys, had levitated his aunt's pudding during the summer after his first year, in order to prevent him from going to Hogwarts citing his own protection. Again Harry wondered as to why nobody had ever told him about this logic or the way this law worked. Sighing he turned back to the man who was watching him with complete understanding and patience. Lowering his wand and running a hand over his face, Harry decided that it would be better if he made sure that he had understood the law correctly and hence looking at the man in front of him, asked, "So just to be sure, if I gave you the permission to perform magic in this room or house, any magic that you do will be traced back to you and not me?" When the man nodded with a reassuring smile, Harry further asked with a confused look on his face, "But then you are still performing magic in a muggle locality, I mean isn't that prohibited? You know the whole hiding magic from muggles thing?"

The man chuckled at Harry's confused looks and said, "I see you have hit the nail directly at the heart of the matter. For you see Harry, the ministry believes that when an adult witch or wizard performs magic in a muggle locality with the acknowledgement of the underage witch or wizard, they expect them to do so in a concealed fashion, meaning away from the prying and inquisitive eyes of any wandering muggles. Although it is completely based on assumption, one has to agree that it is at least a fair one."

When he saw Harry nod as if agreeing with the logic, the man further said, "So now that I have explained the law and the logic behind it, do I have your complete agreement for me to do magic inside this house? For without that I will not be able to tell you anything because I want our conversation to remain completely private."

After Harry acknowledged the need and gave his word of acceptance the man waved his wand in a few complicated swish and swirls, chanting lowly in a tongue that Harry was sure he did not even know about. Once the man was done, he turned to Harry and said, "I just put up a few extensive privacy charms and a few others so that anyone who is looking for you will just plainly assume that you are asleep and will not bother looking for you".

When Harry raised an eyebrow in question for his action, the man chuckled yet again and with a flick of his wand had conjured to very comfortable looking bean bags and turning to Harry he said with barely concealed amusement, "Let's get comfortable shall we? We have got quite a lot to discuss." With that said the man sat down on one of the bean bags and indicated Harry to do the same. Once Harry was seated, the man took a deep breath and looked at Harry seriously for the first time since he had acknowledged Harry's presence. Harry immediately felt as if the man was literally looking into his very soul. Gone was the laid back jovial man, here was someone who Harry was sure he did not want for his enemy. There was only one other person who had made him feel like this and the realization scared Harry out of his wits. As if sensing Harry's discomfort the man smiled a bit, showing a glimpse of the jovial and warm person he was a little while back.

Running a hand through his hair, the man said, "Harry! There is no easy way to say this. I will tell you who I am and why I am here, in return I only ask you that you tell me of all that has happened to you these past four years at Hogwarts and also otherwise in the wizarding world. Do not omit anything. For it is imperative that you tell me everything if you want me to help you and believe me when I say that the help I have in mind is something you will be needing without a doubt. In return, I promise you that whatever I tell you will be completely true, free of any coloring fragments. In fact I would be more than happy to swear an oath, if that is what it will take for you to tell me the truth. Now I'm not going to pry you about your life here at Privet Drive. Despite how I may have acted, I know that you are not treated well here but I will let you decide whether you want to share that with me or not. Believe me when I say I will respect your privacy and that if you do not wish to tell me about it, then you do not have to. But beyond that I need you tell me everything there is about your life in the magical world."

Catching Harry's eye the man asked, "Now Harry, do you want me to swear an oath or would my word suffice in order to make you tell the truth?"

For the first time in his life Harry was genuinely confused. On one hand, here was a man whom he hardly knew. He had not even found out the man's name for god's sake. On the other hand, the way the man had behaved until now told Harry that he did not wish Harry any harm. In fact it seemed like the man was doing his level best to gain Harry's trust without giving up any sensitive information which he seemingly wanted to discuss very eagerly. But could he tell him everything about himself, hoping that the man will do the same? Finally accepting the situation for what it was, Harry gathering his courage, looked the man in the eye and said, "No! You don't have to swear an oath. I accept your word for it hoping that I won't be regretting it."

The man smiled a true smile of acknowledgement and appreciation and said, "Thank you Harry! I assure you that you won't regret your decision."

Leaning forward, the man with an amused grin extended his hand toward Harry and said, "So first things first, Siddharth Kapur, it's a relief to be able to talk to you freely Harry Potter."

Chuckling at his introduction style, Harry leaned forward and shook the man's hand and said, "Though you initially scared the living day lights out of me, I have to say you are much better company than I'm normally used to in this house."

Siddharth shrugging with an air of someone used to hearing such compliments, said, "What can I say? I have that effect on people." When Harry rolled his eyes in response, Siddharth continued, "But please call me Sid. Siddharth immediately makes me look around for someone older."

Harry acknowledged the request with a nod and Sid leaned back a bit more comfortably and began speaking.

"Harry to say it all simply, I was born and brought up in India in an upper middle class magical household. Both my mother and father were working for the ministry back home in a capacity equivalent to what is known here as being an "Unspeakable" at the Department of Mysteries where they dedicate their professional life toward research and exploration of various branches of old and obscure magic. It was the summer after my third year when my parents came to London on some official ministry business. It was while they were attending a party thrown by a friend of theirs that they were attacked. Voldemort himself lead the attack; suffice to say that my life was irrevocably changed. Rumor has it that Voldemort himself killed them, though nobody knows it for sure. The only reason I was not here with them was because there was a wedding going on in the family and I was attending the wedding along with my uncle's family. We did not get the news until after we got back to Delhi. After the formalities and practices were taken care of, my guardianship was given to my uncle, who despite being married did not have any children and thus was always close to me. I won't lie to you and say that it did not affect me because it definitely did. The big difference was that my uncle and aunt did their level best to provide the parental support without assuming the space my parents had left empty."

"I was not a top student Harry, but I was eager to learn new things and thus managed to be amongst the top graduates of my class. After I finished my NEWTs, I followed in my parents' footsteps hoping to keep the tradition and legacy alive. It takes one three years to complete the full training and start working as a full-fledged Unspeakable. But curious as I was I wanted to learn more and hence decided to pursue my mastery in core wand subjects, namely Transfiguration, Charms and Defense. Now it takes one a little over two years to attain ones' mastery and that is if one finds a good and established mentor. I had little trouble on that front, owing largely due to my own academic results and also largely due to the respect my family commanded back home."

Here Sid paused and closed his eyes for a moment as if remembering something and then began speaking again.

"I finished all my training with little effort while managing to successfully attain my masteries. One I was through with all that I started working as a full time Unspeakable. There are many types of magic that are known to mankind Harry but there are few which we are as close to understanding as we were the day we started travelling down that road. Of all those magic, the ones that stand apart are two ― namely, Love and Time. They are two of the most obscure and ancient yet most sought after branches of magic. And I assure you that this will never change, for these are two phenomenons that are as old as humanity itself. Now getting back on track, I spent almost an entire year at the department researching these two topics but soon realized that there could never be any tangible result or conclusion since both of these branches are infinite and indefinite. They vary from perspective to perspective and individual to individual."

"So I decided that I wanted to pursue something which was tangible and understandable and thus requested my Director to allow me to explore the magic of other regions and countries as a foreign agent to the ministry. It took time and quite a bit of favor calling, but finally I got the go green from my Director. It was thus that I spent the last six years traveling round the world, learning esoteric magic of different ethnicity, origins and forms. I came back to England a couple of weeks ago and ran into an old friend of mine. You would know him as the eldest brother of your best friend Ron Weasley."

At Harry's look of surprise Sid chuckled and said, "Yes Harry! Bill is a good friend of mine. We decided to share a few pints of beer and he ended telling me the majority of what was happening in wizarding Britain. Though he was particularly tight lipped about the whole Voldemort affair, I managed to get him to tell me enough for me to work upon."

Here Sid looked Harry in the eye and said, "So after I spoke with Bill I did a little more favor calling and also did a little digging into your records and that was how I ended up here."

Holding out his hand to stall Harry who was about to speak, Sid continued, "Let me complete what I wanted to say Harry, for it will be easier that way. Now to explain my view point any further, I need you tell me about your last four years at Hogwarts and the wizarding world. Also, it will help me judge whether the facts that I have been able to collect through my sources are real or not. Once you are finished telling me all about your experiences, I promise you that I will explain all that I know in relationship to your trouble and problems and also explain what I have in mind to help you."

Then he suddenly clapped his hands in a dramatic manner and said, "But I guess that will have to wait a bit as it is approaching dinner time and something tells me you would be happier to recount your experience on a full stomach."

At Harry's affirmative nod he continued, "Now I don't know about you, but I absolutely love Pizza. How about you?" when Harry nodded excitedly, he said, "Do you think you can take me to a pizza joint for us to spoil ourselves with cheesy goodness?"

Chuckling Harry stood up and nodded and then he frowned a bit and looked at Sid and asked, "Wait, if we walk out now won't my relatives and for that matter anybody else notice us?"

Sid looked at Harry approvingly and said, "Well done! I was wondering if you would notice that fact. But don't worry; I already took care of that when I cast those spells. Simply put I cast them in a manner in which for the entirety of our conversation whatever we speak shall not be heard by anyone else but us and as for us, let's just say that anyone who could be accounted as looking out for you will generally think that you are sleeping and in case you do walk out into their midst, they would find themselves wondering or thinking about something essentially important to them till you are out of their immediate visual vicinity."

Harry looked as though the Christmas had come early for him and he immediately blurted the question before his mind could filter it properly.

"Will you teach me how to do that? I promise I'll do everything I can to learn it."

Laughing openly at the look of eagerness upon Harry's face Sid walked up to Harry and patting him on the shoulder said, "All in good time my friend! Now let's go grab that pizza. I'm hungry!"

With that the two companions walked out of the house with Harry leading them to a Pizza joint at the main community market nearby. All the way the two companions were lost in their own thoughts. Harry was thinking about all that Sid had told him about himself and wondered how he would have coped if he was in Sid's shoes. Whatever faults Sid may have, Harry could positively vouch that being irresponsible and unintelligent were definitely not one of them. By his side Sid was trying to determine their future course of action while understanding the fact that Harry needed the time to think about everything he had been told. Soon they reached the Pizza joint, where Sid ordered a medium Gourmet pizza and Harry settled for a simple medium cheese pizza. Both of them ate silently while they were both thinking about different things.

When the waiter delivered the bill, Harry mentally scolded himself for never having converted some of his Galleons into muggle money at Gringotts. He was about to apologize to Sid for not thinking about this when Sid forestalled him by saying, "Relax Harry! It's alright! Coming here was my idea and as amongst the two of us, I'm the one who is earning as of now, it is only logical and right that I pay." Then smirking at Harry he said in a teasing manner, "If all goes well and we become friends, I'll give you my wish list and you could buy it all for me for Christmas."

Harry realizing that Sid was trying to lighten up the mood played along and agreed to buy him everything in his wish list. One they paid the bill, both of them started back to Number Four, Privet Drive. Soon they were back in the familiar confines of Harry's room without anyone being wiser. Once both of them were settled comfortably, Sid with barely controlled eagerness said, "Well don't keep me waiting. I'm looking forward to hearing all about your school experiences."

Thus Harry began his story, starting with his discovery of being a wizard on his eleventh birthday and Hagrid giving him his Hogwarts acceptance letter, the trip to Diagon Alley with specific mention to meeting Draco Malfoy and also the special tidbit about the connection between his wand and Voldemort's wand that was explained to him by Ollivander. He also mentioned befriending Ron and the Weasleys and then his selection for the Quidditch team followed by their discovery of Cerberus and then the troll incident on Halloween which led to him and Ron befriending Hermione and the subsequent events that let them to discovering Hagrid's dragon egg, its hatching, its rescue, detention in the forbidden forest, Harry seeing Voldemort's lingering spirit, the warning given by Centaur Firenze, research about Nicholas Flamel, their suspicions about Snape and the events that led to the discovery of Quirell and the confrontation and saving of the Sorcerer's stone leading to Quirell's death.

By now, Harry was feeling completely at ease, talking about his experiences to Sid. It was almost cathartic and so Harry soon launched into an explanation about his second year starting with the lack of communication from his friends, Dobby's Visit, his underage warning which led to Dursley's finding out about the magic restriction and then locking him up followed by his rescue by the Weasleys, his remaining summer, the confrontation with Lucius Malfoy in Flourish and Blotts, him and Ron missing the Hogwarts Express followed by them flying to Hogwarts in Ron's dad's car.

He then explained what a pathetic teacher Lockhart was followed by the strange events that led to people getting petrified and the dueling club where Harry realized he was a Parseltongue and then the whole Heir of Slytherin affair which led to him and his friends brewing Polyjuice potion, his discovery of Tom Riddle's diary and his viewing of Hagrid being blamed for the Chamber being opened fifty years ago which led to the death of a girl. He then explained Hermione's petrification and Dumbledore's removal from Hogwarts followed by Hagrid's arrest and their visit to Aragog in the Forbidden Forest, their escape and the discovery about the monster's identity within Slytherin's chamber.

He then explained the so called abduction of Ron's sister Ginny, the subsequent confrontation with Lockhart and their journey to the Chamber of Secrets where Lockhart's attempt to obliviate them using Ron's faulty wand backfired on him and caused the caving in which led to Harry journeying into the chamber alone. He then explained his talk with a young Tom Riddle's memory's echo, Fawkes delivering the sorting hat and the fight with the Basilisk and him killing the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor, destruction of the dairy using the Basilisk fang which led to Ginny's revival and then Fawkes coming to his rescue by healing him with his tears which prevented his death from the Basilisk's bite, their escape from the chamber finishing with how he set Dobby free by tricking Lucius Malfoy.

Sid had decided early on to not feel too much for what had happened to this young man over the past few years, but the description of what his life was like at Hogwarts was really testing Sid's resolve about that decision and so he merely nodded at Harry to continue.

Harry then launched into an explanation of the events of the summer after his second year. Starting with the fight with Aunt Marge and blowing her up to walking out of his relatives' house and boarding the Knight Bus with a fake identity which led to him meeting the Minister at the Leaky Cauldron followed by his stay at Diagon Alley, meeting the Weasleys after their Egypt trip and the warning given by Mr. Weasley about Sirius Black just before he was to board the Hogwarts Express. He then explained the Dementors incident followed by his meeting of Professor Remus Lupin. He then stated the events of his third year at Hogwarts explaining the Dementors' attack during the Quidditch match, his broom being broken which led to him requesting Professor Lupin to teach him the Patronus charm.

He then explained the surprise gift of Firebolt and the subsequent fight with Hermione over its authenticity and their makeup, his discovery of Sirius Black being his Godfather, his successful mastering of the Patronus charm and the prophecy that was made by Professor Trelawney. Finally he got around to the whole incident at the Shrieking Shack where he discovered that the Grim he saw earlier in the summer was actually Sirius Black who was also an Animagus and how he realized the true identity of his parents' traitor owing to Remus and Sirius's explanation and also mentioning the map which was created by his dad along with his friends, which the Weasley Twins had given him for Christmas which had showed him that Pettigrew was alive followed by Professor Snape's intervention. He then mentioned stunning Snape and the subsequent revelation of Ron's pet rat Scabbers being Pettigrew's Animagus form, their attempt to bring him to justice and set Sirius free, the turning of Remus transforming into a Werewolf due to that being a full moon night, the subsequent escape of Pettigrew and the attempt on his and Sirius' life by Dementors.

He then explained his, Hermione's and Ron's confession to the Headmaster and how he had suggested them to use Hermione's Time Turner to go back in time and correct a few events. He then rounded up his story by stating his and Hermione's journey back into time, their saving Buckbeak the Hippogriff, his casting of the patronus to save his & Sirius' life, their subsequent flight to the North Tower on Buckbeak where they released Sirius and urged him to escape on Buckbeak and their return to the Hospital wing before the midnight's chime.

Harry as if in a trance immediately launched into an explanation of his summer before fourth year, starting with the Death Eater's attack at the Quidditch world cup followed by the sighting of the Dark Mark. He then explained the announcement of the Tri Wizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts by the Headmaster at the opening feast followed by him being declared as one of the champions on the night of Halloween, the fall out with Ron, the first task of dragons, Ron's apology, Second task and everything that led to the third task and the time in the maze. He then went into proper details about what happened after the cup Portkey deposited him and Cedric into the graveyard. How Pettigrew killed Cedric, the ritual which led to Voldemort gaining another body, the regrouping of the Death Eaters, his duel with Voldemort and how the spirits of Voldemort's recent victims including his parents had helped him escape the graveyard with Cedric's body back to Hogwarts. The discovery of Barty Crouch Junior being fake Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody, his confession and the Minister's irresponsible behavior of having Barty Crouch Junior kissed by the Dementors thereby destroying the evidence for Voldemort's return and his subsequent denial of the truth and Dumbledore's attempt to make him see the reality and the response of everyone at school.

When he was finished Harry took a deep breath and looked Sid in the eye, who with a straight face said, "You know as much as I want to be horrified about all that happened to you, in reality I envy you." At Harry's incredulous look, he further explained, "I mean think about it, here I am doing all I can and learning all that I can and still I haven't had any luck with respect to seeing any of the creatures that you've met. I mean you've seen and faced a Cerberus, a Basilisk, a Dragon and a Sphinx and not to forget witnessed a dragon hatching and the fact that you've done all of this before you've even taken your OWLs."

And when it finally dawned on Harry that this was Sid's way of acknowledging the trouble he had faced in the past, Harry burst into laughter in which he was promptly joined by Sid. It was quite a while later that both of them had managed to calm down and immediately Harry said, "Thank you! I really needed that after reliving all of that."

Sid nodded with a smile but then immediately became serious and said, "I believe you Harry. I believe you when you say you saw Voldemort's resurrection and that he is back." Harry hadn't realized until then as to what those simple words meant to him. The moment he heard them it was as though a weight had been lifted of his shoulders.

Sid then got up and started pacing around for a bit and then suddenly asked, "Now Harry, remember what I said about the magic of Love?"

When Harry nodded, Sid continued, "Harry, when Voldemort decided to come after you that night, your mother sacrificed herself in order to protect you and in doing so, she reached out and set upon you a protection so ancient and so pure that Voldemort with all his sins and monstrosity was unable to affect you and hence the rebounding of the killing curse and his so called death. The same could be attributed to what happened to Quirell. Since he was hosting Voldemort's spirit in his body he was equally corrupted."

He then paused and looked at Harry seriously and said, "Harry have you ever wondered why despite all this fame and popularity, no one ever visited you here till date?"

When Harry shook his head, Sid started pacing again and said, "The way I understand it Harry, Dumbledore did not believe that Voldemort was truly gone and hence I believe he decided to make sure you were truly safe from any harm. Why he thought so, well of that I have no idea. But he did and so he used the protection your mother's sacrifice gave you to design a protection which would keep you safe from anyone wishing you harm and also from the prying inquisitive eyes and thus he took the only available option he had. Him being the Chief Warlock and a former war hero, he used his position to secure you and left you with the last living relative of your mother's bloodline, namely your aunt and hence the reason why you have to return to Privet Drive every summer after school."

Harry was in a mental dilemma; on one hand he was grateful about the fact that Dumbledore had thought so far ahead but at the same time he was also angry with Dumbledore for all that he had to endure at his relatives' hands. In the end he accepted the reason that being alive was definitely more important than being happy and so he looked at Sid and asked him to continue his explanation.

When Harry looked at him asking him to explain further, he said a mental prayer and hoped Harry would be rational about what he was about to explain next.

"Harry, when Voldemort took your blood for his new body in that ritual, he unknowingly helped in strengthening your protection as now there is one more person whose magic is contributing towards your protection."

Noting that Harry was about to argue indignantly, he held his hand to stem the questions he was sure the young man wanted to ask and said, "I agree Harry, it is sick and twisted but in the end you have to agree that it worked out to our advantage despite the large disadvantage." Seeing Harry nod, he carried on, "Now this whole brother wand thing between your wand and Voldemort's wand is a problem. You see if it comes to only wounding and not killing, not matter what anyone says otherwise, trust me when I say that Voldemort will literally wipe the floor with you."

At Harry's indignant outrage, Sid further explained, "Harry I have no doubt that you are a very powerful wizard for you age. You ability to cast a full corporeal patronus-" at Harry's confused look, Sid paused and explained, "A patronus that can take a specific form rather than being plain mist is known as a corporeal patronus. Now as I was saying your ability to cast a corporeal patronus at the age of thirteen is a testimony to your strength. But Harry, you should remember that Voldemort has years of experience and magical knowledge at his disposal. You'll do well to respect him for that. Remember, I said respect not fear. You should always respect your opponent for doing otherwise will surely lead to your downfall."

When Harry nodded that he understood the seriousness of the fact Sid sat down on the bean bag and said, "Harry, as I was saying this wand problem needs to be addressed. Now I don't know if you know, but you cannot just one day wake up and decide to carry two wands. It requires a special sanction from the ministry if you are a civilian, whereas for ministry officials you will have to get a special license for a second wand. Now any wand you buy will fall under the underage magic law and moreover any wand that you buy from Ollivander will be notified to the ministry as per his Wandmaker license decree and so shall be your Headmaster since he is a very close friend of Ollivander and both of us know that Dumbledore will take a keen interest in anything you do outside of Hogwarts that might put you in trouble."

Harry begrudgingly accepted the fact that what Sid had told him was in fact true though albeit a bit reluctantly. Finally he asked Sid the question that was running in his mind from the moment Sid gave his explanation, "So what do I do?"

Sid chuckling, leaned back in his bean bag and said, "I'm so glad you asked. For you see only a wand that you buy from Ollivander or any other Wandmaker here will be brought into British ministry's attention. The way I see it, you need to go to a Wandmaker outside of England and request him to make you a custom wand which being keyed to you, makes it untraceable, meaning you cannot be tracked by the Ministry for underage magic."

Harry was confused. This sounded like a way too simple solution for the problem. Alright maybe the travelling outside of England was a problem but not impossible. The rest seemed a simple enough process and so he asked Sid for clarification and the response he got made him want to bang his head against his cupboard.

"You see Harry, it is not so simple. Apart from the obvious travel part, you need to be backed by an authorized ministry employee from your country of citizenship to be able to acquire a wand from a foreign Wandmaker if you are an underage wizard. Another reason is that you will have to swear an unbreakable oath with the Wandmaker, with your ministry sponsor being the oath binder that you will never reveal his identity knowingly or unknowingly, for if it becomes known that he has supplied an underage wizard of a foreign nation with a second wand then his license could be revoked and he could be brought before the law, the punishment for which is quite severe. So though it seems simple, in reality it is not."

Now Harry was truly pissed. How on earth was he supposed to find a ministry employee who would help him get a new wand? The only ministry employee he knew was Mr. Weasley and no matter how much he liked Harry, he would never go for this idea. And even mentioning such an idea was sure to bring it to the Headmaster's notice who would surely chastise harry for thinking of such an illegal idea. Not to mention Mrs. Weasley and Hermione. He was sure they would have an absolute fit if they ever found out about this idea of his. When he looked up he saw Sid sitting there with an amused expression on his face and Harry genuinely feeling helpless snapped at him and asked, "Just what are you so amused about?"

Sid cool as ever asked with a large grin on his face, "Having trouble zeroing in on a ministry employee who will help you?" When Harry scowled and nodded, grinning he continued, "Remember at the beginning I said I was back in England?" when harry nodded again, he continued, "I told you I was working as a foreign agent for my countries' Department of Mysteries right?"

At this Harry finally caught on and stammered incredulously, "You… you mean?"

Laughing Sid replied, "Yes Harry! I'll be more than happy to be your sponsor to get you a new wand. Now that brings me to my real purpose of visit. I told you my parents were rumored to be killed by Voldemort right?" at Harry's somber nod, he continued, "I want to do what I can to bring their killer to justice Harry. So not only will I help you in getting your new wand but I will also help you train and prepare for the coming confrontation. Now I know you are thinking what can I teach you in little more than two months but let me assure you, I have a way around that. But to do that we will have to get you out of here."

Now it wasn't that Harry was unwilling to go along with Sid. Just that the same man had told him that he had to stay here in order for his mother's protection to work, so he asked, "I'm sorry Sid, but didn't you say that I have to stay here in order for my mother's protection to work?"

Sid nodded and said, "That I did Harry. But that was because nowhere was safer than here. Not even your friend Ron's house. But think about it, you have never known me before today. In fact nobody knows that I'm here right now. So the fact that nobody knows that we know each other when added with all the protection that I have put at my own place makes my place the safest place for you. Don't you think so?"

When Harry seemed to be thinking it all over, Sid further explained, "Not to forget the fact that before we leave I'll be creating an illusion here that will make sure that your relatives and the people who might be watching out for you will believe that you are just cooped up inside grumbling over all that happened at the end of the tournament. Also I'll be doing another little arrangement which will keep the blood protection alive so that our departure doesn't trip any wards that Dumbledore has set up to monitor you during the summer."

When he was done, he looked back to see Harry looking at him with something akin to awe and disbelief. Honestly, the way Harry was looking at him one would think that he had just named Harry as the sole beneficiary of his will. So shaking his head, he called Harry's name. It was only on the fifth attempt that Harry responded and was immediately embarrassed about his momentary loss of reaction and quickly covered it up by asking, "You really will do all this for me?"

At Sid's affirmative nod Harry did not know what to say to the man. He was a stranger who hadn't known Harry before this and yet he was willing to do all this for him, all for a simple reason because he wanted to see the murderer of his parents defeated and brought to justice. So Harry instead asked him what was needed to be done for which Sid simply asked him to pack whatever he wanted to take with him. Since he hadn't unpacked in the first place, he didn't have anything to pack. So Sid asked him to simply prick his finger and drop five drops of blood on a small doll which Harry suspiciously thought looked like him but he anyway complied.

Once he had done so, Sid put the doll on the bed and started chanting in a very low and deep tongue that Harry somehow thought was one of the native Indian languages and suddenly Harry felt a small tingle within him. But it was gone as soon as it began making Harry wonder if he had imagined it. When Sid was done chanting, Harry was astonished to see that the doll was indeed his look alike and that it was in fact walking around the room as if it was a perfectly normal thing. When he asked Sid about this he was told that what Sid did was a mix of both Indian and Egyptian magic and it was the opposite of an old Egyptian ritual called Execration.

Sid explained that using Harry's blood which had been dropped on the doll, he had called upon the ritual to allow him to draw enough of Harry's characteristics and magic into the doll to make it act like him without hurting or affecting Harry, which was what Execration was basically about. Since it was used to bind and banish the enemy in the realm of non-entity; so now the doll would be a magical replica of Harry allowing Harry to leave Privet Drive while keeping his mother's protection alive in the house so as not to draw any attention from the protective wards set up by Dumbledore. Sid then started waving his wand in long and complicated patterns for the next few minutes chanting regularly in varying tongues. When he was satisfied, he turned to Harry and told him that everything was set and that no one will notice him gone. Also that he had added an extra ward so as to redirect all of Harry's mails to his place.

When he had finished explaining he looked at his watch to check the time and it was only then that Harry realized that it was almost midnight and suddenly he felt very tired. Sid noticing this gave him a small encouraging smile and told him that they will be able to rest soon. Once Sid assured himself that everything was in order, he asked Harry to take Hedwig's Owl cage which was now empty since the Owl had awoken during their conversation and had gone hunting. He then tapped it with his wand and shrunk it along with Harry's trunk which he had already shrunk to a small matchbox size and put them both in his pocket.

Seeing Harry looking pensively at the window, he assured him that Hedwig would come directly to his place being Harry's familiar and with that assurance, he took an old toy gun of Dudley which he had picked up from Dudley's stuffed pile of broken toys and tapped it with his wand, which after a moment glowed blue and went back to its old state. After sweeping the room for one last time for anything they were leaving behind which they weren't supposed to, he held the toy gun toward Harry asking him to touch it. The moment Harry did so, he heard Sid say the word "freedom" which activated the Portkey making him feel the familiar tug behind his navel, signaling his freedom from his hated relatives for the rest of the summer.

A/N: Well there you go. I hope the length is not too long. Since I'm not a fan of breaking up chapters if I can avoid it, I had to keep it this long.

Now most importantly, thank you for such a wonderful response. I know it was not much in the way of an introduction and opening, so I was pleasantly surprised to see such a response. Please do not ever change in this regard. If you like something make sure you to let me know. If you do not like something or do not understand the treatment of a particular part or character then I insist that you question me about it.

Since you are spending your time reading my story, it is only fair that I clarify your doubts. Please remember, that your review, irrespective of whether they are positive or negative, mean a lot to me.

I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE – AN UNBREAKABLE VOW FOR AN UNTRACEABLE WAND

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

The moment his feet landed firmly on the ground, Harry felt himself falling face first into the hard concrete ground and most probably would have broken his nose if not for Sid's quick response of grabbing the back of his collar. For reasons unknown, Harry found himself quite challenged when it came to any form of magical travel except for when flying a broom. Once he had straightened himself up, he saw Sid checking for any one passing buy before reaching into his pocket and taking out a folded piece of parchment which he handed over to Harry while simultaneously taking out his wand and erecting a privacy bubble. He then lit his wand and looked at Harry in the soft glow of the wand light and said, "Harry, unfold that parchment and memorize whatever is written on it but do so quietly without reading it aloud."

When Harry unfolded the parchment as Sid had requested he found one simple line written in a neat scrawl which said, "Sid's Studio can be found at Number 5, The Flintstones, London." Wondering curiously, he looked at Sid with a raised eyebrow who grinned mischievously while pointing his thumb sideways. Harry turned in the direction in which he was pointing and felt his jaw drop in surprise, metaphorically at least. What he was sure a moment ago had been an old abandoned warehouse, was now an elegant looking multistory house. He quickly looked at Sid hoping to get an explanation, only to find him pressing a finger to his lips and gesturing Harry to follow him. Once they got to the front door, Sid extinguished the light from his wand before waving it in a quick and complicated pattern. As soon as Sid stopped his wand movement, Harry heard the telltale click of the door opening and quietly followed Sid into the house. Once inside, Sid surprised him yet again by waving his wand and switching the lights on in the room which turned out to be muggle electronic lights instead of candles. Finally, Harry couldn't take the suspense anymore and quickly voiced his questions out, one after the other.

"What was that you did outside? One second there's an old abandoned warehouse and the next second there's your house standing in the exact same space, which by the way looks really good from the outside despite the lack of light. But most importantly, how are you using electricity here and that too with the help of your wand? From what I've been told, magic and electricity can't co-exist."

When he finally paused for breath, Sid looking way too amused for the late hour, sat down on an gray colored couch and looked at Harry before saying, "What you witnessed outside is what is known as the Fidelius Charm, wherein the secret of whatever you want to hide is hidden inside a person's conscious. You may search the end of the world for a place but if you haven't been informed about the location of a place by the secret keeper himself then you cannot find that particular place." Then a little more soberly he added, "Harry that was what happened to your parents. The cottage in which your family stayed in Godric's Hollow while in hiding was under Fidelius charm with Peter Pettigrew as the secret keeper. He betrayed your parents by leaking your location's information to Voldemort."

Harry immediately stiffened, not that he didn't know that Pettigrew had betrayed his parents; he just never knew the nature of magic and thus never understood the depth of his betrayal. But before he could think too much about it, Sid's voice brought him back to the present.

"As to the exact nature of fidelius' magic, it is like without knowing the secret you might be standing right in front of it yet you'll never see the place." When he saw that Harry was about to ask a question, he raised his hand forestalling him and said, "I know Harry. That was not what happened outside and hence the second part of the explanation. You see Harry, as I told you yesterday, my key and inspiration to learn something was always focused on the need and cause relationship, which in turn made me curious enough that not only did I learn that particular something but I always kept pondering over how best to develop whatever shortcomings it had. When I came around to learning the fidelius, I always wondered about the shortcomings, which mainly was the fact that if one chose to hide in the wizarding world, there weren't many places he or she could chose. Whereas if one chose the muggle world despite the fact that one had many avenues there is still a very serious problem involved there." Then looking Harry in the eye, he asked, "Can you guess as to what that might be Harry?"

The moment Sid had mentioned the whole shortcoming aspect of fidelius Harry had already started wondering as to what they could be. So when Sid asked him the question, Harry thought for a bit and after pondering for a few minutes, he came up with only one problem, though a substantial one at that. He thought about the best way to put across his thought process and then eventually said, "If one were to use fidelius in a muggle neighborhood they will have a lot more choices but that advantage is for naught if the house or building you are hiding is bound to have a lot of visitors. Like a secret gathering or such. Despite the fact that one could use the Floo or a Portkey, the ones visiting for the first time will have to be brought through the front door. Now it is generally expected of witches and wizards to make sure that there aren't any muggles around when they use magic due to the whole Statue of Secrecy, but it this case it will still be an iffy thing. If your place is sensitive enough to be put under the fidelius, then that increases your vulnerability. One can never be too careful or too sure in that case."

The moment he had finished voicing his thoughts out aloud, Sid immediately exclaimed, "Exactly Harry, exactly. And that is what forms the crux of the problem. So I kept thinking of some way to counter that and the result is what you saw earlier today."

At Harry's quizzical look, Sid decided to explain further, "Now Harry are you aware that to any passing muggle, Hogwarts would look like a old crumbling building in ruins, giving it a haunted aura?" when Harry nodded he continued, "I applied something similar to my concept Harry. Only I reversed the concept so that to any muggle, this house will look normal, but to any passing witch or wizard or anyone who is looking for us and doesn't know the secret, this house will look like the old abandoned warehouse you saw earlier which will immediately make them overlook it as something unworthy of their attention. It's my interpretation of the muggle saying, "hiding in plain sight" if you will."

The first thing that came to Harry's mind when Sid finished his explanation was absolute awe over Sid's ability to work around the limitation of such a complex charm. On second thought, he couldn't help but chuckle over Sid's cheek to use one of the most complex charm known to the wizarding world combined with the illusion that wizards and witches use to hide magical stuff from muggles, to work out a solution for his problem of hiding his house from any wizard or witch he doesn't want to associate with while still making sure that he was hiding in the muggle world without breaking the statute of secrecy.

When he looked back at Sid, he saw him grinning devilishly before he said, "I see you understood my reasoning. Now as to your second question, it is not essentially electricity per se. It is more like a complex combination of Runes and Arithmancy that allowed me to work out a way to power these electronic and electrical tidbits without resorting to muggle means. In a way, the whole switch and circuit system is connected to the house's wardstone which activates the required combination of runes to power a particular amenity or appliance when the relevant switch is switched on."

Seeing Harry trying to understand the concept, Sid got up and said, "Harry as much as I would like to explain it all here and now, it is not possible. I suggest we hit our beds for now. We can talk more in the morning."

When Harry nodded, Sid signaled to Harry asking him to follow himself and walked up the stairs and stopped at the second door before opening it and walking inside. When Harry walked into the room, he saw that it was as big as the main bedroom of Number Four, Privet Drive painted in neutral colors with a comfortable looking king size bed, a wardrobe closet, a study table and an attached washroom. Sid asked him to make himself comfortable and to call for him if he needed something mentioning that he was in the last door on the floor. Once Sid left after he had resized Hedwig's cage and Harry's trunk to their actual size, Harry walked over to the huge bay window doors in the room and opened them so as to make sure that Hedwig could come in. He then removed his old trainers and fell on the bed thinking about all that had happened to him that day, but the days' exhilaration made way for exhaustion and soon he was fast asleep. And for the first time since the night in the graveyard, Harry slept without having any nightmares.

It was almost noon by the time Harry woke up. He took a few minutes to get his bearings up and running before getting up to get his morning or as in this case the afternoon necessities out of the way. It was only when he came out after having a bath that he realized that Hedwig had indeed come back and was now peacefully sleeping on top of a perch near the window which also had a water bowl on it. Harry guessed that it was Sid who put it there while he was sleeping in order to make sure that Hedwig was comfortably settled. It was another half an hour before Harry came down to the living room to find Sid sprawled out on a bean bag next to a sofa idly flipping TV channels. When Sid noticed him enter the room, he sat up a bit straighter and said, "Oh good, you're up. I guess you would like to eat something before we talk further?" seeing Harry nod Sid continued, "So do you want to go out or should we order home delivery? There's a good Chinese restaurant nearby." When Harry quietly mumbled "home delivery" before plopping down on the sofa opposite him, Sid got up and walked over to a drawer before coming up to Harry and showing him the menu. Once Harry had told him his choice, Sid took out a cordless phone from a nearby side table and placed the order before sitting back down on the bean bag.

Sid paused for a few moments as if collect his thoughts together before he looked at Harry and said, "So to start with, we need to talk about two things; first your wand and second your training." When Harry nodded he continued, "Now as for your wand that we'll be taking care of tomorrow as I have already made the necessary arrangements; whereas for your training I was planning on starting it the day after. Though you do have two months at your disposal, I do not want you to spend all of that training Harry. Moreover from what you told me yesterday, I believe Dumbledore would be asking you move to either your friend's place or to another place around the time of your birthday or a little later than that. So that gives us an assured one month if we start your training the day after tomorrow."

When he saw Harry thinking hard Sid further said, "Harry" and when Harry looked back at him Sid continued, "As I told you yesterday, one of my main subjects while I was working as a fulltime unspeakable was magic pertaining to Time. Though I did not continue with it, over the years I have been working on it on the sidelines and one of the things I created or rather perfected was a spell that allows one to control the flow of time in a specific place or plane, meaning I can make time move at an irrationally slower pace than in reality."

When Harry looked to be trying hard to understand what he had just said, Sid shook his head and continued, "Simply put, once I activate the spell in this house, we will have more time to work with. For example though we will be here for a month on normal timeline, in reality I can make the time go as slow as to make one day outside equivalent to three months inside of the house. So though you'll be spending one month with me, you'll actually be spending around about seven and a half years inside the house learning all that I teach you."

Harry was beyond sure that his jaw was literally touching the ground and that his eyes were popping out of his sockets. Seven and a half years against the reality of just one month. But deep down Harry realized that he wasn't shocked about it; more like he was excited at the prospect of learning so much that he was sure if he were to ever come up against Death Eaters or for that matter Voldemort, anytime in the near future, he could at least hold his own till the time help arrived. So he did the only logical thing he could think of and asked Sid, "So when do we start?"

Sid smiling in approval said, "Like I said, the day after tomorrow. Now get up, I'll give you a tour of the house."

And so for the next few minutes Sid gave Harry a tour of the house which was basically, the living room where they sat, the kitchen, the common washroom, Sid's study which had the lone password protected Floo in the house and a huge library which was a result of Sid joining two rooms and held over thousands books on different forms of magic in floor to ceiling length book shelves. Sid told him that they were a combination of his family library and his own personal collection over the years. He also told Harry that there was a good bit of magic involved in storing the books and hence there was a lot more than that which met the eye. What impressed Harry the most about the library was the Master Index book that was placed on the lone study table in the room. One just had to write the title or the topic of magic one wanted to read and all the relevant books would automatically be summoned to the table. Harry was sure that Hermione would give her wand arm for an unrestricted access to this library. Sid had assured him that he was free to come into the room anytime he wanted and to read anything he liked. No questions will be asked whatsoever.

Next Sid took him to the first floor where apart from Sid's and Harry's rooms there were two other rooms similar to Harry's, decorated in pretty much the same style. Sid also asked Harry as to whether he wanted to redecorate his room since he would staying there for quite some time but Harry assured him that he liked his room the way it was and nothing further was needed. Next Sid took him to the back garden, which was basically as big as the whole house itself. Sid told him that this is where they'll be practicing and learning new magic as Sid had already warded the garden to be spell proof and also had made sure that to any peeping muggle it will look like a normal back garden. They had just finished the tour and entered the living room when their food order was delivered. They ate their food while watching TV browsing through different channels before they settled on an American sitcom which Sid assured Harry was very good.

Once both of them had eaten their share, Sid broached the next topic on his agenda.

"Harry, don't get me wrong but from what I was able to find out about your family I'm sure that you can afford yourself a decent wardrobe. Is there a specific reason why you are wearing these old clothes?" when he saw Harry fidgeting nervously he further said, "It doesn't make any difference to me Harry. But think about it, I'm sure that your parents would want you to take better care of yourself. I mean you do not have to splurge your money over it but I'm sure you have enough to buy yourself nice clothes."

Though normally Harry would have been uncomfortable with this line of conversation, the whole his parents wanting him to have nice clothes angle gave Harry a pause and when he actually thought about it, it all really made sense. But then again there was his reasoning for not wanting buy new clothes and so he told Sid the same.

"Sid, as far as I know, all that my parents left me was my trust vault which though has enough money in it for me to buy good clothes, I still want to make sure that I have enough money to get by before I start earning. Also I'm pretty sure that if I were to get good clothes, my relatives will get wind about my money source and demand that I give the entirety of my fortune over to them."

When he turned to look at Sid, he saw that for the first time since he had met him, Sid was confused. So when he asked Sid as to what he was confused about, the answer he got in response made him want to punch someone.

"Harry I don't know who your source of information is but if what I found out about your family is true then what you have is just a trust vault which all magical parents set up once a child is born. Also a specific amount which is pre decided by the parents is added to the child's vault on his birthday every year till he becomes twenty one; in other words till you start earning. Now since you are the last living member of your family I'm pretty sure that the Goblins will grant you full access to your family's vault once you come of age. So rest assured for you do not have to worry about money."

When he saw Harry silently seething, Sid reluctantly continued, "Don't worry too much about it Harry. You can always go to Gringotts and ask for all the pertinent details. I'm sure they will show you everything. Now as for your relatives, since you won't be staying with them anytime soon and the fact that even if you do, you can always defend yourself using magic once you have your new wand, will I guess solve the problems on that front." When Harry nodded thoughtfully, he continued, "Now since we don't have anything else to do today, how about we take care of your financial issues and your wardrobe needs?"

This time Harry nodded a bit more assuredly and was about to get up when Sid's next question stopped him.

"Harry, would you mind if I asked you something else?"

When Harry gestured to Sid that he won't and to ask his question, Sid continued, "Can you tell me a bit about how you are in your studies? I'm asking you because I want to know from where I can start. No other reason."

So Harry explained all about whatever he had learned at school and all the subjects he was good at and bad at along with his choice of electives. Though Harry at one point wanted to withhold a few pieces of information, he couldn't find it in his heart to lie to Sid who was doing so much for him. Once he was done, Sid had an unreadable expression on his face. When Harry asked him what he was thinking, Sid calmly yet very seriously said, "Harry I won't lie to you and say that I'm not disappointed. Not because of the results but because I can honestly say that you haven't tried to give your hundred percent in your studies. That won't work with me Harry. If you want me to teach you then I will do so only if you give it your best shot. Otherwise why should I waste my time?"

When Harry nodded that he understood Sid's reasoning he further said, "As for your electives, I mean I can understand Care of Magical Creatures, what with you having your yearly rendezvous with various magical creatures", here Sid smirked a bit and Harry grinned sheepishly in response, so he continued, "But why Divination? I mean I do not have anything against that branch of magic but you can't predict stuff Harry. Even the real seers don't remember a thing of what they said. You either have the gift or you don't; plain and simple, period."

For the first time in his life, Harry felt like a child who was being berated by a parent for his poor academic choice and performance and Harry liked the feeling of someone taking interest in his academic performance and questioning him for his choices. Harry would never say this to Ron, but he was always a bit jealous that his friend had such a big family with so many elder brothers he could walk up to and ask for help. Oh he was sure that Fred and George would do almost anything for him if he asked, but they weren't what one could consider the serious caring big brothers with whom you could have a talk about your career ambitions and life's goals.

Sid realized that Harry was indeed mulling over what he had said and so he waited a few minutes before he said, "Now Harry, though I only got my mastery in core wand subjects, I also did get outstandings in both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy in both my OWLs and NEWTs. So if you want, I'll be more than happy to teach you those subjects so that you can drop Divination and instead take these electives from now on." When Harry nodded enthusiastically, he continued, "So that decided we also need to get you a few books. I guess it's best we get started." Saying this Sid got up and Harry followed him to the first floor where they both went into their respective rooms to change.

Once they were back in the living room, Sid put on a few glamour charms on Harry so as to make sure that he wasn't recognized by any of Voldemort's Death Eaters or Dumbledore's people who he was sure were keeping an eye on Diagon Alley. With that done, they both walked out of the house and then kept walk for a bit till they reached a huge Oak tree where Sid pulled Harry in to the cover of the tree and looked around for a bit before asked him to hold his hand. Harry raised his eyebrow in question for which Sid rolled his eyes before he told Harry that he was taking him to the deserted alley beside the Leaky Cauldron by Side-along Apparition. When Harry had firmly taken hold of Sid's hand, he saw Sid smirk before twisting a bit and immediately Harry felt like his body was being shoved down a very narrow pipe that was way too small and being pushed through it and before he could comprehend, he found himself standing in the deserted alleyway beside the Leaky Cauldron. Immediately Harry bent over holding his stomach before he almost whiningly asked, "Why are all forms of magical transportation so discomforting?" When he heard Sid chuckle, he stood up still a bit nauseous and scowled to which Sid raised his hands in a placating manner and said, "Believe me Harry, you did very well. The first time I side-along apparated, I threw up."

Soon they were in the back end of the Leaky Cauldron were Sid tapped the required bricks which opened the magical archway that led to Diagon Alley. While they walked toward Gringotts Sid told Harry that once they entered Gringotts, he was to wait while Sid spoke to the teller and secured a private room for them to conduct Harry's inquiry so as to not alert anyone about his appearance at Gringotts and Harry acknowledged that it was a good idea. Once they were inside Gringotts, Harry waited by the side while Sid walked up to a teller to make the required request. Harry saw the goblin scowl at first and then look in Harry's direction in a calculating manner with narrowed eyes before he nodded slowly and left to make the required arrangements. He then saw Sid walking toward him and nodding once confirming that their request has indeed been accepted. After a few minutes the same goblin teller walked up to them and asked them to follow him. He led them to a room that looked like a small meeting room with a regal looking desk in place with one official high-backed chair on one side and three comfortable chairs for visitors on the other side, along with a few more visitor chairs arranged in a corner for the visitors to wait before they were summoned over to the desk. Once they both were seated, the goblin left them alone while making sure that the room was locked.

As soon as the goblin had left, Harry turned to Sid and asked, "Something tells me that you did little more than ask them for a private inquiry." When Sid grinned mischievously, Harry scowled and asked, "What did you do now?"

Sid chuckled and said, "You worry too much Harry. All I said to that goblin was that my companion was none other than Harry Potter and that he wanted to conduct his business in private and that you would be more than happy to verify your identity in whatever way required." When he saw Harry eyeing him suspiciously, he sighed and continued, "I also told them that there has been a lot of miscommunication with respect to the actual Potter family assets and that you would like to speak to the Head Goblin regarding it."

Harry did not know whether to be impressed or outraged, so he settled for plainly questioning Sid and asked, "Are you mad? What would I say to him? Hell I didn't even know that I had a family vault till you told me. This is going to be so embarrassing."

Seeing Harry's worried train of thought, Sid placed a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "Harry, It's alright. Nobody is born knowing these details. Children are taught about their family's legacy and heritage and finances by their parents over a period of time. It is not your fault that Voldemort went after your parents and it is your right as their customer to ask them for information when you don't know or understand something."

As Harry nodded taking a deep breath, the door opened admitting a very old goblin who was dressed impeccably and was being tailed by two goblin guards. The guards positioned themselves outside the door on either side while the old goblin walked over to the desk and took the high-backed chair before gesturing Sid and Harry to take the visitor's chairs. Once they were all seated, the old goblin clasped his hands together and put them on the desk and looked at Harry with emotionless eyes before saying, "I was informed that you claimed your true identity to be that of Harry Potter and that you wanted to talk about your family's finances." When Harry turned and looked at Sid, Sid in turn looked toward the old goblin as if asking for permission. Once the old goblin nodded his head, Sid cancelled the glamour charms he had put on Harry, returning him to his original state. The old goblin's eye traveled the telltale path from his eyes to the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead before he nodded once and snapped his fingers making a plain parchment and small knife appear before him, which he passed over to Harry before saying, "Please make a small cut on your finger and drop three drops of your blood on the parchment."

Harry looked to Sid who nodded calmly and so Harry did as requested and dropped the required amount on blood on the parchment. When he had done so, the parchment glowed in a bright white color before the drops of blood disappeared and words started forming on the parchment. While they were waiting, Sid healed Harry's cut. It took about ten seconds before the words stopped appearing. The old goblin took the parchment and read it silently before he put it in front of Harry as if sensing his desire to read what was on the paper. What Harry saw made him take a sharp breath in surprise. Printed on the parchment in a neat script was the information about Harry's true identity.

Name: Harry Potter

Date of Birth: 31 July 1980

Father's Name: James Potter

Mother's Name: Lily Potter

Blood Status: Half Blood

Education Status: Yet to obtain OWLs

Employment Status: Currently not eligible

Access to Family Vault: Currently not eligible

Access to Trust Vault: Active

Harry looked up to see the old goblin watching him calmly before he leaned back in his chair comfortably and said, "Now that we have verified your true identity Mr. Potter allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ragnok, the Head-goblin for Gringotts, London branch. So what was it that you wanted to know?"

Harry turned toward Sid who smiled and nodded encouragingly asking him to speak. So Harry turned toward Ragnok and said, "Sir, I really have no idea about how all of this works. The first time I came to know about the fact that I even had any sort of money let alone a vault was when Hagrid brought me here the first time on my eleventh birthday. He gave me a small key once he took me to my vault and it is that key which I have been using for the last three years in order to get my money. Earlier today when I was speaking to Sid― I mean Siddharth here, he told me that I should also have a Family vault since my family was one of the oldest families in magical Britain, though he also mentioned that I won't be able to access my family vault till I came of age. But what I wanted to ask was why wasn't I told about this vault before? Seeing as I was the last of my family left, shouldn't I be informed about this? Also the muggles have a system in which they get statements for all their bank accounts indicating their present net worth. What I mean by my previous statement is that though I know that I have money, I have absolutely no idea as to how much there actually is. Shouldn't you be informing your customers about the exact state of their finances periodically through a statement via owl post?"

Though outwardly Harry was speaking confidently, inwardly he was a nervous wreck. He still remembered Hagrid's advice about goblins being nasty creatures and the way Ragnok was looking at him with calculating eyes was frankly unnerving.

Finally Ragnok nodded and said, "I agree with all that you said about informing the customers about their current state of finances Mr. Potter and that is why at end of every quarter, we send a statement with all the particulars about their accounts to every one of our customers." When Harry looked shocked, Ragnok gave a goblin version of a chuckle which frankly scared Harry out of his wits and continued, "Mr. Potter you have to understand that when you parents were killed and your Godfather was incarcerated, your safety and custody had become a delicate matter and so Albus Dumbledore using all his political pull took over as your magical guardian." At Harry's raised eyebrow, he simply nodded and continued, "Now as for informing a child about their Trust Vault, parents usually inform them about this around their eleventh birthday as you are only allowed to access it once you turn eleven. So that part of your initiation was perfectly normal. As for informing you about your Family Vault well that is really up to your magical guardian Mr. Potter. We do not have any say on that front. Now as for the financial statements Mr. Potter, from the moment Albus Dumbledore took over your magical guardianship, we have been regularly sending him statements of both your Trust Vault and Family Vault. In fact if I were to be honest your family's finances have grown extremely well under the investment guidelines given to us by Albus Dumbledore."

Harry took a few minutes to digest all that he had learned. Why would Dumbledore make sure that his family's finances were so well taken care of and yet not tell Harry about it? Harry had long ago given up on understanding the way Dumbledore worked but this was taking it to an all new level. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Ragnok and asked, "Sir, would it be too much if I asked you to provide me with information regarding the current state of both my Trust and Family vault? Also can you make sure that along with mailing a copy to Headmaster Dumbledore, that I shall also get a copy of the statements separately?"

Ragnok looked at Harry before saying, "Mr. Potter I can definitely show you the current state of finances pertaining to both your Trust vault and Family vault. As for the statements, is there a reason you want another copy? You can always ask Dumbledore. I assure you that he will have to show you the statement if you ask it of him, for failing to do so is considered a breach of his guardianship duties."

Harry quickly shook his head and said, "It's not like that Sir. I trust the Headmaster to take care of it all properly. I just want to know about it, that's all. I don't know why I wasn't informed about all this by the Headmaster but I don't hold it against him. I'm sure that he has his reasons but likewise I also have mine. It's my family's accounts. The least I can do is to spend some time going over the details of the finances."

Ragnok nodded approvingly and said, "Very well Mr. Potter. From now on we will be mailing you the statements regarding both your Trust and Family vault regularly. As for your request regarding the current state of finances pertaining to both your vaults, please wait for a few minutes and I will give you the required information." Ragnok then snapped his fingers yet again making a thick ledger, an inkwell and a quill to appear. He opened the ledger and wrote something on it and then after waiting for a few minutes, turned it toward Harry and Sid for them to look at. Harry as well as Sid leaned forward to read what was written and what they saw made Harry to imitate a fish while Sid just whistled. Written there were the current balance and state of Harry's trust vault and his family's finances.

Potter Family Vault

Current Balance: 1,119,833,631 Galleons and assorted Sickles and Knuts

Potter Business Holdings

100% shareholders of "The Curious Wizard Magitronix Inc."

45% shareholders of "Quality Quidditch Supplies"

40% shareholders of "Flourish and Blotts"

40% shareholders of "Gladrags Wizardwear"

30% shareholders of "Zonko's Joke Shop"

25% shareholders of "The Quibbler"

25% shareholders of "Wizarding Wireless Network"

Real Estate Listings

Potter Manor, Edinburgh

Country Cottage, Godric's Hollow, Wales

Marauder's Den, 5, Hogsmeade, Scotland

Prongs' Condo, 16, Rutland Court, Knightsbridge, London

Lily's Pond, 43, Hill St, Mayfair, London

Marauder's Retreat, 102, Piccadilly, London

James' Joint, 27, Diagon Alley, London

The Beacon, 520, Avenida Atlantica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Charlie's Cabin, 23, Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy

Trocadero, Paris 16eme, Paris-Ile-de-France

# 5, Morningside Dr, New York, NY, 10025, United States

# 24012, Pacific Coast Hwy, #205, Malibu, CA, 90265, United States

Potter Family Vault Inventory Listings

Books, Paintings, Photographs, Trunks, Heirlooms, and assorted items

Trust Vault - Harry Potter

Current Balance: 243,150 Galleons and Assorted Sickles and Knuts

Harry shook his head to recover himself and looked at Ragnok and asked, "Is this all real?" Ragnok chuckled at Harry's expression and said, "Every last word Mr. Potter."

Sid meanwhile suddenly laughed and said, "Well I'm pretty sure that you can afford a full wardrobe without skipping any meal till your next birthday."

Harry mock scowled but understood that Sid was just trying to ease his discomfort. He was rich. No, scratch that. He was filthy rich. But in reality he knew that he didn't give a damn about all this money. Ok so maybe he did. After all it was his legacy and it only felt right that he did his bit to make sure that his future generation had good bit of money at their disposal. Soon Harry and Sid left the bank but not before Sid convinced Harry to withdraw a large amount of Galleons for shopping and also to convert an equally large amount separately into Muggle currency for Muggle shopping. Once they were about to re-enter the bank's lobby, Sid reapplied the glamour charms on Harry and the two of them walked out of the bank without any further activity and without catching anyone's attention.

Frankly, the rest of the day was quite a blur for Harry. He remembered going to Flourish and Blotts and getting the required books and also a few more that Sid thought would be good for him to go through. They then went to Madam Malkins' were Harry ordered quite a bit of both formal and informal robes and when Madam Malkins took his measurements Sid asked her to make them two sizes bigger. When Harry looked at Sid as though he was out of his mind Sid assured him that he was in fact thinking ahead. After that they went to Harrods in Muggle London were again Sid asked Harry to buy two sizes bigger and Harry ended up buying everything from shirts, casual trousers, jeans, t shirts, vests, boxers, training shorts, swimming trunks, socks, formal shirts, formal trousers, a couple of formal suits, formal shoes, trainers, hiking shoes and a lot of other men's accessories that Sid assured Harry, made girls take notice of men. When they had finished all their shopping, Sid took Harry to a nearby alley and resized all of his shopping so that he could carry it all in a simple carry bag, before he took them to a fast food joint which he assured Harry served the best Cheese Burgers in all of London. It was while they were eating here that Harry at last asked Sid why he had asked him buy two sizes bigger and Sid in turn gave a simple explanation.

"Harry, you are far too underfed for your age, which in turn has led to not only you being of such skinny build but also a magical core which is vastly underdeveloped for your age. So in order to counter that, I'll be getting you some health potions which work more or like muggle health supplements only that these do work in reality. Now coupled with all the physical and magical training I'll put you through, you will be properly filled out by the end of next month and hence I asked you to buy two sizes bigger so as to counter the growth spurt. I know you have money Harry but there is a difference between spending and splurging. There is no point in buying new clothes only to outgrow them a month later."

Harry had to agree that it made sense. Soon they were back at Sid's place and Sid asked Harry to hit the bed soon after since they had to leave early the next day, in order to get Harry's untraceable wand. Harry tried yet again to make Sid reveal the identity of the Wandmaker but he simply did not budge. Soon Harry went to bed thinking about everything he had learned about his family's standing in the wizarding world. It wasn't a long time before Harry felt himself sink into the realm of Morpheus.

It started as an odd sensation. A feeling like he was being aroused from a deep sleep. One second there was nothing but black space surrounding his consciousness and the next moment he felt himself standing at the end of a long black corridor staring at a lone black door at the opposite end. Something about the door made him curious. The way it stood at the opposite end seemed like a challenge, as if it was there just to mock him. Now he wasn't a vain person. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. He was just a simple minded individual who knew his limits but yet the way the door mocked him, irked him to no end and so he decided to see what it was about the door that made it so special. He started walking towards it. Soon he told himself, soon I'll reach it and then I'll find out what it is that made the door so special. Just as he was about to reach out his hand to open the door, a sharp sound brought him back to the world of living.

Harry woke up start, tangled in a mess of sheets, his breath coming out in short and rapid bursts. He looked around the room for the source of the sound and realized that it was just Hedwig who was back from her early morning hunt. He looked at the clock on the bedside table and realized that it was almost five in the morning. He knew there was no point in going back to sleep as Sid had expressly told him yesterday that they were to make an early start in order to make it to the Wandmaker's place in time. So Harry decided to freshen up and get ready. He took his time, going about the things slowly. It was a little over an hour when he came down to the living room but all the while he was thinking about the same thing. What was that corridor and what was it that lay behind the door?

Too wired up to sit quietly, Harry decided to make some coffee for himself and Sid and spent the next few minutes doing that. Soon Sid came out all dressed for the day. When he saw Harry making coffee in the kitchen, he greeted him warmly and took the offered coffee mug with a mumbled, "thanks man" before going to the living room to flip through the various muggle international news channels while simultaneously reading the Daily Prophet that the owl had delivered. Once he had finished reading what he wanted, he looked at Harry with a smile before asking, "Ready to go?" when Harry nodded, he walked back to the kitchen and washed both his and Harry's empty coffee mugs before coming back into the living room and asking Harry to join him. Once Harry joined him, he took out a folded parchment from his pocket and asked Harry to touch it and when Harry complied he simply said, "Gregorovitch" and Harry felt the familiar pull of a Portkey whisking him away.

When his feet touched hard ground, Harry felt Sid putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Looking up he realized that they were in some sort of a transit area. When he went to ask Sid about it, Sid leaned in and whispered, "Not here Harry" and then he started walking, gesturing Harry to follow. He reached a corner and ushered Harry through a door where he without any explanation cast a few glamour charms on Harry, changing his appearance. When he was done, he looked at Harry satisfying himself of his handy work before he said, "I'm sorry Harry. It is imperative that nobody knows your true identity here. I hope you understand." When Harry nodded that he understood, he continued, "Now as to where we are, this Harry is Berlin International Airport's Magical Transportation section much like your Platform Nine and Three Quarters at the Kings Cross station in London."

Seeing Harry's thoughtful look, he further explained, "Yes Harry. It's the same everywhere. Despite all the raving about the Statute of Secrecy, all major Magical Transportation transits are situated in the middle of major muggle transport avenues and areas." When Harry nodded with a deep sigh, he suddenly turned cheerful and said, "Now how about we have a nice German breakfast before we go meet Gregorovitch?"

Harry was completely thrown off by Sid's immediate change in disposition, but he had come to realize that Sid was someone who though did not eat a lot, was always excited about trying out some new cuisine. So he simply nodded and followed Sid as he led them to a corner where up ahead a lot of people where disappearing into a dark corner that was situated at the end. It was when they reached the dark corner that Harry realized that the dark abandoned corner was actually the magical gateway that led them into the busy shopping segment of Magical Berlin.

They soon found a nice road side restaurant where Harry ate a dish which he was told was made of pork and cheese whereas Sid got himself some Salad. They ate their breakfast majorly talking about the differences between the magical populace of Britain and Germany that were predominantly evident at first sight. By the time they were done, it was around half past nine and so Sid led them both through a twisted passageway across the market that Harry was sure he wouldn't be able to remember even if his life depended on it. Soon they were standing in front of a shop that Harry was sure had been around for a long time and yet Harry could feel the magic emanating from it and so he looked up, only to spot a board that had something written in German along with an art work of a hand crafting a wand from wood. The blinds on the shop's window were completely pulled shut yet Sid without a second thought opened the door and walked inside and Harry followed him quietly. Once they were inside, Sid led them over to a couple of chairs that were arranged in a corner in order for the visitors to sit. As soon as they sat down, a man who Harry on first look thought had the same mystical aura like Ollivander walked in through a side door. Up on seeing the man, Sid immediately brightened up and said, "Hello Greg! I see you are still pretty spry."

The man whom Sid had called 'Greg' scowled and said, "How many times do I have to tell you to not call me by that infernal nickname?" Sid simply chuckled and said, "At least once more for sure." When the man did not respond, Sid asked in a little more serious manner, "Now I hope you have prepared for what I spoke to you about." When the man nodded Sid turned toward Harry and cancelled the glamour charms before suddenly standing up and saying, "Harry allow me to introduce to you one of the world's most renowned Wandmaker, Gregorovitch. Greg," here he grinned at a scowling Gregorovitch and said, "Allow me to introduce to you Harry Potter."

Harry extended his hand toward the renowned Wandmaker and said, "Please to meet you Sir. Thank you for agreeing to help me out." Gregorovitch immediately shaking Harry's offered hand, gave him a fond smile which showed the reality of his age, said in a flawless yet thickly accented English, "The pleasure is all mine Mr. Potter. I have to say that I was genuinely curious and jealous when Garrick told me about your experience when you came in to his shop to get your new wand." When Harry looked confused he elaborated by saying, "For you see Mr. Potter, it is not every day that a Wandmaker meets a witch or wizard who presents a challenge in terms of finding the right match. It's the wand that chooses the wizard Mr. Potter, meaning you will have to come across the wand that will allow you to best channelize your magic. It's hard to say why it is so but it has been very clear that that is how it works."

When Harry nodded that he was following, Gregorovitch walked to the front door where he flipped the sign from 'open' to 'closed' and then ushered them both to the back of his shop which was mainly his work shop and then turned to Harry and said, "Mr. Potter am I to assume correctly that Mr. Kapur here has explained the rules about getting an untraceable wand from an foreign Wandmaker?" seeing Harry nod affirmatively he continued, "Very well then. The sooner we get done with the specifics, the sooner we can get to the fun part." Saying this he extended his hand to Harry for him to clasp it and said, "If you please, Mr. Potter" and as soon as Harry did so, he turned to Sid and said, "When you are ready."

Sid took out his wand but something in him forced him to look at Harry and ask him one last time, "Harry are you sure you want do this? The result or punishment for the breach of an Unbreakable Vow is death Harry." When Harry instead of answering, turned to Gregorovitch and clasped his hand more firmly, Sid saw from the corner of his eye that Greg was giving Harry a smile which both acknowledged and admired his decision and will. So Sid without further delay calmed himself before he tapped their clasped hands and looked at Harry and asked, "Do you Harry Potter, agree to never use your untraceable wand outside of your training and education expect for when stuck in real life threatening situations or to save another fellow witch or wizard's life?" and as Harry said "I do", a single golden thread of light surrounded Harry's & Gregorovitch's clasped hands.

Sid then turned toward Gregorovitch and asked, "Do you Gregorovitch agree to provide Harry Potter with an untraceable wand that best matches him using the best of means and knowledge available to you?" When Gregorovitch replied with an, "I do" another golden thread of light surrounded his and Harry's clasped hand.

Then looking at Harry's and Gregorovitch's clasped hands, Sid asked them both, the final clause of the Unbreakable Vow, "Do you Harry Potter and Gregorovitch, agree to keep the knowledge of the untraceable wand that shall be created here a secret till you breathe your last breath and to never betray the identity of your fellow oath-bearer even under a threat to your own life?" and as both Harry and Gregorovitch jointly said, "I do" a third golden thread of light surrounded their clasped hands before all the three golden threads of light shined brightly for a moment before disappearing altogether.

As soon as the golden threads of light disappeared, Gregorovitch took Harry's clasped hand in both of his hands and said, "Please forgive me Mr. Potter. Believe me when I say, if I could have helped you without having to go through this then surely I would have. Do not hold it against this old man for I am truly helpless otherwise my child." When Harry assured Gregorovitch that he did not think any different of him after the oath, Gregorovitch smiled with eyes that were surprisingly full of compassion and said, "Now Mr. Potter, there are two ways to make a wand untraceable. First is that I show you my stock of completed wands and we can look for a wand that best matches your magic. Once that is done, we then add five drops of your blood to a potion that I have already prepared in advance and soak the wand we finalized in it for a period of fifteen minutes before allowing it to dry for another seventy five minutes."

When Harry nodded in understanding, Gregorovitch continued, "The second method is a bit lengthier in terms of time taken but considerably more efficient. In this I first show you my stock of magical cores for you to find your match from. Then you shall hold the core in your hand and hold it over my stock of wand woods that are ready to be filled with magical cores. Once the selection is done, you will then drop seven drops of your blood in such a manner that your blood is absorbed by both the wood and the core equally. The last stage in this process is the addition of runes that best suit you. To determine that, you shall place your hand over an orb that has all the runes that can be carved on a wand. The best rune suited to your magic shall glow on the orb and I will add it to the wand. This whole process takes about five hours."

Gregorovitch then looked Harry in the eye and asked, "So Mr. Potter, which will it be?" Harry in turn looked at Sid and asked, "Do you have to go somewhere or do we have the luxury of time?" Sid instead of replying simply looked at Gregorovitch and said, "As long as you tell me about a place where I can get a good lunch, five hours it is."

With that said, Gregorovitch led Harry and Sid over to a cupboard from which he took out a rucksack and held it in front of Harry and said, "Mr. Potter simply put the hand in which you wish to hold the wand inside the bag and try to find the item that you feel the most pull toward. Once you find the item, simple take out your hand and say, Accio."

Harry did as requested and put his left hand inside the rucksack. At first he didn't feel anything except for the texture of various core materials. But after a few minutes he felt his hand being pulled in a particular direction. When he acknowledged the pull, he soon realized that the warmth was increasing as well. Soon he found the core item. It felt soft yet Harry could feel the magic flowing through it. So he took out his hand and said, "Accio" making a long majestic looking feather to zip up from the bag. The feather was mainly sky blue in color with grey and white accents. When Harry turned to Gregorovitch, he noticed that the old Wandmaker looked as if Christmas had come early for him this year.

On seeing Harry's questioning look, Gregorovitch gave a sheepish smile and said, "Forgive me Mr. Potter, for this particular feather has been with me for a long time. Almost a century if I remember correctly. It's a one of a kind magical core Mr. Potter, for I assure you that no one else in this world possesses a wand or will probably ever possess a wand that has or will have the feather of a Thunderbird as its magical core, as the wonderful creatures are as good as extinct in today's times. I myself was quite lucky in procuring this you see." Then he clapped his hands like a happy child and said, "So now that you have got your magical core, how about we find the right wood for your wand?" when Harry nodded Gregorovitch closed the rucksack and returned it to its place before he took a cardboard box filled with wand woods and asked Harry to repeat the process, only this time he asked him to hold the Thunderbird feather in his hands and so Harry obliged and a minute later he was standing with a combination of White Ash wand wood and Thunderbird feather.

That done, Gregorovitch held the wand wood and magical core while Sid made a small cut on Harry's left hand after which Harry dropped seven drops of his blood in exactly the same manner in which Gregorovitch asked him. Once he had dropped the required drops of his blood, Sid healed Harry's cut and followed Gregorovitch over to another cupboard from which he took a translucent orb and asked Harry to place his left hand on it. When Harry did so, the result made even Gregorovitch take a sharp breath in surprise. Harry became worried as Gregorovitch had told him that only the runes that suited him were supposed to glow whereas here the entire orb was glowing. Seeing his worried look Gregorovitch said, "Mr. Potter there is nothing to be worried about. Your magic is so profound that despite finding such a strong core and wood match, your magic still wants to be channeled properly without any dire consequences and hence your magic called forth every protective and enhancing rune that could be etched on the wand. It is a testimony to your pristine heart and soul Mr. Potter that even your magic wishes to abide by it."

"Now all that is left is for me is to take your measurements. After that I can start working on your wand." So after Gregorovitch took the measurements, which was pretty much the same process as at Ollivanders', he got down to work on Harry's wand. While he was resizing the Thunderbird feather to fit into the wand wood according to Harry's measurements, Gregorovitch told them about his trip to North America to collect some rare wand woods. He explained that it was on this trip that while he was hiking a mountain that he came across a Thunderbird that was gravely injured. He then told Sid and Harry about how he gained the Thunderbird's trust and treated it while setting up his camp there. And finally he told them as to how the brilliant and majestic creature had as a measure of gratitude, shed a single feather into his hand and flown away into the depth of the sky.

After the resizing of the feather, Gregorovitch then started resizing and carving the wand wood appropriately and then adjusting the Thunderbird feather into the resized wand wood. Once that was done, he got around to binding the wand by soaking it in a magical binding potion. After the wand was properly bonded he put it on a metal tray and then put the tray in a fireplace which was burning merrily, for a few minutes. Once that was done, he then got down to carving the runes on the wand and giving it the finishing touches. Once he was satisfied by his work, Gregorovitch then took out a bottle of wand polish and thoroughly polished the wand, which by the time he was done was a dark gray color and twelve inches long with a grip that looked suspiciously like it had a Thunderbird's wings wrapped around it while the head took the place of the bottom end of the wand. All the while he was working Gregorovitch either kept telling Harry and Sid stories about some of his wandmaking experiences or kept answering all their questions peacefully yet precisely.

So engrossed was he in all of Gregorovitch's stories and his answers that despite the fact that the process had taken the stated five hours, Harry felt like it was no time before Gregorovitch was handing him over his wand. It was a work of art. Harry had no doubt about it and the rush of power he had felt when he held it for the first time was nothing like he could ever explain. It was hundred times better than flying on his Firebolt at full speed. Such was the exhilaration.

So lost was he in his thoughts and feelings that it took Sid placing a hand on his shoulder to snap Harry out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Gregorovitch watching him with a knowing smile on his face and Sid giving him an encouraging smile. Harry did the only thing he could think of and summoned the happiest memory of his life and said, "Expecto Patronum", making the ethereal form of Prongs to burst forth from his wand tip and gallop across the length of the workshop.

It was a delighted trio of wizards who walked out to the front of the shop, where Harry paid Gregorovitch a sum of One Hundred Galleons for the wand, while Gregorovitch gave Harry two Dragon hide wand holsters with Anti Disarming and Anti Summoning charms, as a token of gift for Harry's trust in his wandmaking abilities. Once Sid had taught Harry the right way to wear the wand holsters on both his arms and put the respective wands in place, he reapplied the glamour charms on Harry and then led him over to a restaurant that was suggested by Gregorovitch and the two of them ended up eating a very hearty lunch. After that, Sid and Harry got back to the magical transit area of the Berlin International Airport, where Sid took out the same folded parchment from his pocket and asked Harry to touch it before he said the activation password of "Retreat" taking them back to Sid's place in London.

The remainder of the day was spent with Harry trying out various charms and transfigurations using his new White Ash & Thunderbird feather wand. At one point Sid made a valid suggestion of disillusioning his untraceable wand while it was holstered and not in use, which led to Harry in turn revealing to Sid the nature of Mad-eye Moody's magical eye which could see through almost anything including glamour charms and invisibility cloaks. So Sid disappeared in to his library for a bit to read up on a charm which he was sure would help Harry. It was another fifteen minutes before he came back and performed the required charm making Harry experience a tingling feeling before asking Harry to choose what was akin to a password.

When questioned, Sid explained that what he performed was an old forgotten variation of the fidelius charm. In this case, instead of a property or a plane, a particular item or a piece of information is hidden in plain sight without risking its revelation. So Harry setup a password in 'Parseltongue' since he was pretty sure that the only other person capable of speaking the language was Voldemort himself. When Sid asked Harry what the password was, he told him that it was a simple everyday charm only this time it was in 'Parseltongue'. At Sid's raised eyebrow, Harry grinned mischievously and said, "Finite Incantatem" in 'Parseltongue' revealing the identity of his untraceable wand to Sid. Since they had an early start that day, both of them decided to call it an early night. So after devouring two large cheese pizzas that they had gotten home delivered, the two of them retreated to their respective rooms to catch up on the much needed sleep. Though curious as he was about the identity and reality of the long black corridor with a lone black door at the other end, Harry did not visit the place that night. Instead he let himself fall completely into the realm of Morpheus.

A/N: Well there you go. Another one down and the chapter is longer this time around.

Once again, I thank you for all the overwhelming response. You people seriously know how to motivate an author. Please never stop doing this.

Like I said earlier, let me know your thoughts and ideas via reviews or PMs.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR – I FINISH MY YEARS OF TRAINING IN LITERALLY NO TIME

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

When Harry came down that day after finishing his morning chores all set to start his training, the one thing he had wanted to tell Sid was to not take it easy on him. Though once he had told Sid the same, the bemused smile that Sid gave him in return, told Harry that he had just made a huge miscalculation; a miscalculation which he was sure was going to cost him badly.

Once both of them had a healthy breakfast of cheese sandwiches and orange juice which Sid had personally prepared that morning, Sid led them both to the back garden. Upon entering Sid immediately conjured a plain yet comfortable plastic chair that Harry was sure was of muggle design, in order for Harry to sit, while he started walking around the length of the back garden as if lost in some deep thought.

Then suddenly, he stopped and leaned against a tree facing Harry and said, "Harry as I told you the day we met I will be teaching you everything that I can in order to help you give an edge against Voldemort."

"Having said that, what I'm about to teach you is not just offensive or defensive magic. It's magic, plain and simple. It's the whole set. You might me be very good at something while you might be terribly bad at something else. So my main aim is to make you reach your full potential while making sure that you are capable of handling anything and everything you might comes across. Making sense?"

At Harry's affirmative nod Sid continued, "So for the duration of your training, your routine for the day will be split into three parts; namely physical and magical endurance followed by magical theory, application and spell casting and lastly but most importantly, exploring your affinity to some of the rarer forms of magic."

Harry was trying hard but failing to find any topic that Sid might have overlooked in his schedule. The way he had outlined the whole regime told Harry that he had made sure to include almost everything there was to be included. So he moved on to the next question that popped into his head. Alas it was something that he needed to ask Sid and so he did.

"That's a whole lot of stuff that you are packing into the schedule. How long would I be required to train every day?"

Chuckling at Harry's blasé yet inquisitive attitude, Sid said, "You will start with three hours of physical and magical endurance training once you wake up. Then after you've freshened up and had your breakfast you will be first concentrating on relearning and learning all seven years of Hogwarts' curriculum and anything else that I will be teaching you for the next six hours with a lunch break in between. The last part of the day is majorly about exploring possible affinities which will again be another three hours with a dinner break in-between followed by eight hours of sleep which will allow your magic as well as your body to rest and rejuvenate."

Harry silently looked at Sid with an expression which clearly screamed 'you cannot be serious.'

Sid amused as he was on the inside kept an expressionless face outside and said, "I know it is a lot Harry but like I said previously, you are going to need every single minute of it." Noting Harry's pensive look, Sid further said, "Don't worry Harry! It will not be all just training. We will have some fun as well."

Despite Sid's reassurances Harry had a feeling that he was missing something here. If his years at Privet Drive were anything to go by, then spending seven and a half years cooped up inside a house with just another human being irrespective of the allure and liberty of performing of magic was still a disaster waiting to happen. So Harry looked at Sid and asked, "So that means although it will be a month in reality, we will actually be spending seven and a half years cooped up here doing nothing but training me in different forms of magic?"

At first Sid looked confused and then as if he understood what Harry was trying to say, started chuckling making Harry feel indignant. Realizing that his response looked completely wrong from Harry's end, he stopped chuckling and said, "Harry what I told you the day before regarding the time manipulation spell was to give you an example of how I can train you in the given one month that we have for you to train."

"Remember Harry, every magic has its limitations and Time magic is no different. Activating a time manipulation spell of that magnitude and extent maybe incredibly alluring but yet extremely destructive."

Noticing Harry's confused look he decided to elaborate further and said, "Harry when we manipulate time to move at a slower pace, we too become part of the whole manipulated timeline. Now though our body won't be undergoing major physical changes it still needs to be treated as if we are in a real timeline, meaning we need to eat and take care of our regular human needs."

"And therein lies the problem as the moment we put a particular place or plane under time manipulation, it goes off synch with the rest of the world. In other terms if we were to use that spell on this house in the same extremity as I told you the day before, going out to eat or getting our food delivered will be a problem as every single day in the outside world will be equal to three months inside ."

"For instance, if we wanted to order home delivery from that Chinese restaurant two nights in a row, then we will be stuck badly as though it will be two different days for us, the restaurant's end of the timeline which apparently is the real world, will be an iffy thing. Second problem being the fact that if we activate the time manipulation in the house and go out to eat food, every single time we step out, we will be losing precious training time as the moment we step outside the house we are back in the real world. I may still use it in some form in the next one month but that won't constitute the core part of your training pattern."

Now that Sid had explained the complications of manipulating time, Harry finally understood why Hermione was so freaked out about not being seen the day he and Hermione had used her Time Turner to save Sirius and Buckbeak. Having realized that time manipulation was out of the question Harry was genuinely curious as to what Sid had in mind for his training and hence voiced out his curiosity to Sid who in turn gave a mischievous smile and said, "We'll be travelling to another dimension."

Seeing Harry's perplexed look Sid decided to explain further and said, "One of the topics that is researched very frequently at the Department of Mysteries is inter-dimensional travel. In this the researchers try to work out the possibility of travelling from one dimension to another, randomly or to a specified date and time. In fact I know many wizards and witches who have spent their entire lives researching this topic."

"Simply put, we will be travelling from a particular place in this world or dimension to the same place in another dimension. Now the important thing to understand is the importance of choosing your departure and arrival site. For example, the Buckingham Palace is bound to be the same in either dimension as is Hogwarts. So let's say if you were to leave from this house in this dimension, you need to be sure that this house exists in the dimension you are willing to go or else you will end up in a dimension where the house may exist but not the one you intended to go to."

Harry felt like he was getting a headache. All this dimension talk was stretching his imagination way too much, so he decided to summarize what he had heard in order to check its validity and asked, "So what you are trying to tell me is that in order for inter-dimensional travel to be possible, we need to be at a place that we are sure will exist in both the dimensions?"

Sid nodded and said, "Now that you have understood that, I can tell you the main reason as to why I chose this over time manipulation" At Harry's silent nod he continued, "The thing is Harry when I transport us to another dimension, no matter how much time we spend there, when we come back here, we will be coming back to the same moment in time as when we left. In other words you may spend ten years training there whereas in reality you haven't really spent any time training."

"Now while we are in that dimension, neither of us can try to contact any of our friends or be seen in magical Britain of that particular dimension as we are outsiders there. There may or may not be a Harry Potter or Siddharth Kapur there, living at this house or Number Four Privet Drive or anywhere else, but we do not want to find out. So when we leave the house there, we will have to use extensive glamour charms and aliases. Considering the fact that unlike time manipulation, this method gives us the liberty of moving around the society freely, I'd say it's something that is worth the extra effort. Following me?"

When Harry nodded he continued, "Now as to the real plan, after we are done talking you will get back inside and pack everything you have in the trunk that I will give you while I will go to Gringotts and get us the money we will require for the duration of the time we will be spending in the other dimension, both muggle and magical. Once I get back and pack my stuff, I'll put the house on lockdown and disguise both us so that we can take a taxi to Stonehenge, where we'll settle down in a nearby hotel for the rest of the day and then travel to the other dimension at the first stroke of dawn."

"Upon reaching the other dimension, we'll find a nice big house with a nice back garden in London using my alais in order for me to train you. Once we finish, I'll transfigure it to look brand new and add a few trinkets and tidbits and resale the place so that I get back both the money that I invested on the place and the money that I spent for our stay and also to make sure that we leave nothing of ours behind. Then from there we travel to Stonehenge where we do the same as we did here and travel back to our dimension's Stonehenge where we take the first available taxi back to this house. In other words, your whole training will be over in less than twenty four hours time."

Harry was staring incredulously at Sid. He wasn't sure if he was capable of speaking at the moment or not because such was the magnitude of the plan that Sid had made in order to make the whole process of his training fool proof at every end. So Harry decided to summarize his understanding of the plan in order to make sure that he hadn't misunderstood anything.

"So in essence the plan is that the two of us will pack everything we have and will need to survive for years in another dimension including both muggle and magical money that we will use to buy a place and also to survive for years without working. Once we have that sorted you will then disguise us as per pre-prepared aliases and put the house on lockdown after which we will take a taxi to Stonehenge where we'll kill the rest of the day laying low and at the first stroke of down travel to another dimension. Once we get there we again lay low while we take the necessary steps to buy a place. As soon as we have the place, we put it under the required enchantments and start my training. You then will spend years teaching me everything you know, while I'll do so learning all of that. Once we finish my training, you will upgrade the place, strip it of enchantments, sell it to the highest bidder and then we again take a taxi to Stonehenge in that dimension wherein at the next first stroke of dawn we travel back to our dimension and then take the first taxi back to your place. Did I miss anything?"

When Harry finished his summary and took a deep breath, Sid was both amused and impressed. So he simply said, "A brief but perfect summary and no, you did not miss anything."

With that said Sid gestured for Harry to join him back inside the house while with a flick of his wand, he vanished the conjured chair. Once inside he asked Harry to wait in the living room while he went into his study. He came back a few minutes later with a very normal looking trunk and put it in front of Harry.

The moment Sid opened the trunk and started explaining the features of the trunk, Harry knew that this was similar to Mad-eye Moody's trunk only a bit more advanced with lots of pre furnished rooms that more or less made it a portable apartment. Also the trunk was apparently unbreakable with so many privacy and safety features that Harry was sure would make even Mad-eye Moody green with envy.

Once Sid had explained all that he wanted he asked Harry to go up to his room and pack while he left to Gringotts to make the required money withdrawal. It took Harry about fifteen minutes to pack everything he had including the recently purchased clothes in Sid's trunk and once that was sorted, he tapped the trunk with his wand the way Sid had showed him which activated the shrinking feature making the trunk look like a matchbox. He then told Hedwig that she had to stay out of the house till tomorrow evening by which time they'll be back. Hedwig bobbed her head in understanding, rubbed her head to his cheek in a show of her support before she affectionately nipped his ears and took off through the room's window.

By the time Harry finished everything and came down it was half past eleven. He only had to wait for a few minutes when Sid came back informing that he had everything they needed and that he had also booked a Taxi that will pick them up from the community shopping centre at half past one. Sid then disappeared up to his room to pack and then came back down and went first to his study and then to the library. When Sid came back to the living room he was carrying a small muggle style rucksack that Harry was sure carried everything they'll need. He asked Harry about his luggage and Harry patted the pocket of his jeans in reply. Sid gave a simple nod before he quickly cast the glamour charms on Harry and himself and told Harry the details of his alais. After that Sid quickly led Harry out of the house and then used a muggle lock for the front door in order to avoid any suspicions. He then made sure that there wasn't any muggle or anyone else watching them before he took out his wand and used it to put the house on magical lockdown.

He and Harry then walked to the community shopping centre where they had their lunch while going over the details of their plan. Soon their taxi arrived and both of them settled in comfortably. It took about three hours with all the traffic for them to reach Stonehenge throughout which Sid kept telling Harry some or other story from his trips to various countries. Upon reaching Stonehenge, they located a decent hotel within walking distance where they took two single rooms and spent the rest of the day talking about Harry's training schedule and the kind of house they would need to buy in the other dimension and various other details of the trip. Since they had to start before Dawn the next day, they both had their dinner early and went to bed with a plan to wake up at four in the morning to start the journey.

When Harry knocked on Sid's door at quarter past four the next morning after he had freshened up, Sid opened the door and asked him to come in. He found that Sid had ordered coffee for the two of them via room service. They had their coffee in silence as both of them were yet to fully wake up and also because both were very nervous although for different reasons. After they finished their coffee, Sid made sure that they both had everything they were supposed to have and then led them to the lobby where he settled their bill for the stay. Soon they were on their way to Stonehenge and reached the place in about ten minutes.

Upon reaching Stonehenge Sid checked his watch for time and realized that it was five and the dawn would be breaking in soon, so he handed over his rucksack to Harry after he took out a black onyx cube. He then proceeded to disillusion both of them and silence their feet so as to not make any sound. He then asked Harry to follow him to the middle of the Stonehenge where he quickly drew a pentagram in the middle using his wand and then various other runes at compass points and then drew two large parallel circles surrounding the pentagram and the runes. He then proceeded to fill the space between the two circles with various rune markings at regular intervals.

Harry was standing by the side as he watched Sid doing what was required without making a single noise. For the first time Harry was witnessing the surety and precision with which Sid was working. It was like he knew that no matter what he could not be wrong. Harry wondered if that was how he would be once he finished his training. He was brought back to reality when Sid touched him on the shoulder and gestured him to follow him to where they needed to be. Once they reached the desired spot, Sid removed the disillusionment and silencing charm off them and put the black onyx cube right in the middle of them and asked Harry to take out his White Oak and Thunderbird Feather wand. As soon as Harry had his wand in his hand, Sid checked the horizon for the sign of dawn and then immediately started chanting in what Harry guessed was old Latin and tapped the onyx cube once with his wand which immediately caused the various runes that were etched into the onyx cube to glow white.

As soon as Sid had tapped the onyx cube, Harry immediately felt the air pressure shift in the atmosphere around them. It was nothing like anything Harry had ever felt before in his life. It was heavy but yet it was pure and powerful. This was the feeling of magic as old as humanity itself. All of a sudden Sid signaled him to touch a point on the onyx cube with his wand. As Harry touched that point, Sid too put his wand at another point and then looked at horizon again. Harry too for the first time looked up and saw the dawn's first light breaking in and heard Sid finish his chant with a flourish but missed witnessing the blue glow that had surrounded the ground as Sid had finished his chant. For years later Harry would describe the feeling of transporting to another dimension as nothing but total peace because that was how smooth the travel was.

But it wasn't only the blue glow of the surface that Harry had missed. He also missed the curtain of sun's rays that surrounded them and prevented anyone else from witnessing their travel to another dimension. It was to a similar setting and situation that Sid and Harry reappeared in the Stonehenge of the other dimension.

As soon as the lights surrounding them had vanished, Sid removed the onyx cube and took his rucksack from Harry and put the onyx cube inside it while he cleared the floor of any markings with a few flicks of his wand and then reapplied the disillusionment and feet silencing charm on both of them. What astounded Harry was the speed with which Sid did all this. It took him just about maybe a minute to do all of this. Once he was sure that they were all set, Sid gestured to Harry to put his wand back into the holster while he did the same. After about a ten minute walk, Sid purposely led them to another hotel at the opposite end of the road from the one in which they had stayed in their dimension and asked for two single rooms. Once both of them got to their rooms, Sid asked Harry to get a few good hours of sleep in as he wanted to do the same and also because they couldn't visit any Real Estate agent before noon. Soon the two of them were sleeping blissfully in their respective rooms.

Back in their original dimension, Albus Dumbledore had just finished performing the Fidelius charm on Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London making it the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix with himself as the secret keeper.

It took two days for Sid and Harry to finalize on a house and another two to get all the paperwork done muggle way but Sid assured Harry that they were in fact getting things done at a great pace owing largely due to their prompt money payment and a little bit of generous commission. Once they moved to the new house, it took another day and a half to buy whatever they wanted for the house and then to put up all the necessary enchantments that would keep their magical activities off the radar.

As promised Sid made sure that he concentrated on all aspect of Harry's magical and physical growth starting right with giving Harry the health potion that he was supposed to take for the first month of his stay in the other dimension, every morning after he woke up. The first part of the day was largely all about building Harry's stamina both physically and magically. For this Sid made Harry work out the muggle way before he made him fire Reductos and variety of other curses at specified targets that are generally very draining in nature.

The second part of the day was largely about making Harry relearn his Hogwarts' curriculum in a more effective manner, both theoretically and practically all first through seven years. Once that was over, Sid was planning to train Harry up to the level of Mastery in core wand subjects just like himself.

The last part of the day was to check Harry's affinity toward rare forms of magic such as Mind Magic with major emphasis on Occlumency and Legilimency, Wandless magic, Animagus ability and Elemental magic.

It was a complete wholesome package as Sid had promised and was accordingly draining true to Harry's prediction. But it wasn't always training that kept them occupied. Sid made sure that since they had the liberty of time, Harry came out of the shell that he had built around himself and started living life like the youngster he was. It worked out so well that while they were there, Harry actually went out on quite a few dates with muggle girls of his age without revealing his true identity.

In the end it took little over five years for Sid to completely train Harry in everything that he wanted. Throughout these five years the first part of the day was about building Harry's stamina which progressed from workout and throwing curses to full out duels between Sid and Harry with no stone unturned to dual casting. For the first two years all Sid made Harry do was to workout muggle style and build his magical stamina through various high power curses. The third year of Harry's endurance training was to dodge all of Sid's attack which was of both physical and magical nature. In the end Sid was attacking for almost thirty minutes without landing a single shot on Harry. The fourth year was spent with Sid teaching Harry the art of dueling all out without giving any respite. In this the first four months of the year Sid literally wiped the floor with Harry and it was only during the end of the year that Harry finally started winning duels which was nothing but having Sid at the point where a single curse could kill him. During the final year of his training, Harry was taught the art of dual casting which in Harry's point was a total pain in the ass idea but in the end worth every single minute of the pain he had endured.

In the second part of the day, Sid spent the first year teaching first through fourth year of Hogwarts curriculum along with the two electives of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy right from the scratch. The second year was all about OWL and NEWT level curriculum were Sid refused to accept anything less than an outstanding level of work from Harry as according to Sid that was how good Harry was. The final three years were spent in Harry's Mastery level training in core wand subjects namely Defense, Transfiguration and Charms. By the end Sid promised Harry that he was probably ready to do independent research on any of these core wand subjects or teach either of these if that was where his interests lay.

As for Harry's affinity towards the rarer forms of magic, Sid found out soon enough that Harry had an incredible gift of the element of Air. It was like as if that part of Harry's magic was just waiting for to be called forth. Harry wasn't actually surprised about this. He had always loved flying. It was like he was born to fly. So when he discovered that he had the ability to use Air as both an Offensive and Defensive weapon he embraced it wholeheartedly. But what did surprise him was that apart from controlling Air, he could actually produce Lightning Bolts from the sky whenever he wanted, without too much of an effort. But above all what made Harry fall in love with his Elemental ability was that he could actually manipulate the Air around him to fly.

When he asked Sid whether there was any record of any witch or wizard able to fly like him, Sid told outright that it hadn't been done until then. So Harry took to honing his Elemental Magic with full gusto and reached a point where using it was second nature to him.

As for Wandless Magic he was able to do it but it wasn't advisable as unlike his Elemental powers, using Wandless magic drained Harry big time. So Sid did as much as he could in terms of training Harry there along with providing every book he could on the subject. In the end Harry had enough control over his Wandless ability that if he was ever disarmed, he could at least hold his own till help arrived. Another surprise was Harry's mastery of Occlumency. In the beginning it looked like this was one aspect which Harry wouldn't be able to master but once Sid had explained the intent and ideology behind Legilimency and how Occlumency countered it, Harry had mastered it at a frightening speed. He was so good that no matter what Sid tried Harry's shields were as good as impenetrable.

Unsurprisingly the part which Harry enjoyed the most out of all his training was the one toward becoming an Animagus. Harry's Animagus form turned out to be that of a Snow Leopard. Once Harry had told Sid the story of the Marauders, Sid made sure that Harry got enough free time once in a while to get habituated with his Snow Leopard self which Sid had named Silverfang urging Harry to carry forward the Marauders' Animagus legacy.

When Sid was sure that he had taught Harry all that he could teach him, he asked Harry to join him in his study one evening where he revealed to Harry the reason for the meeting. Apparently Sid had been holding back on his teachings. It seemed that Sid had taught Harry all that he could teach, but not everything he had learned. For what he had not taught Harry was that which couldn't be taught in a classroom. These were branches that could be learnt only through thorough research. So instead Sid had found another way for Harry to gain that knowledge.

He pointed to a large globe shaped rock on his desk which was dark gray in color and looked as if it had been modeled out of a large mountain rock. On closer inspection, Harry recognized that the entire surface of the rock was sculpted with various runes which were way too advanced for Harry to understand despite his outstanding NEWT level knowledge. Sid told him that the large circular rock was known as the Vessel of Essence, which apparently was not only carrying all of Sid's knowledge of his research and travel over the years but also the knowledge that few of his other colleagues had shared from their years of research and travels.

When Harry asked Sid as to why he hadn't done so at the start, Sid told him that for Harry to withstand the onslaught of so much information without losing his mind, he needed to learn the art of Occlumency and also have greater control and understanding of his magic and hence the delay.

Sid then told Harry that the reason for the spell or process to have fallen out of practice was because it was extremely painful. When Harry asked him for further explanation, Sid told him that it was equivalent to the feel of being under several Cruciatus curses for almost fifteen minutes at the minimum. What made it worse was that unlike Cruciatus the pain was not just an illusion. It was in fact very real. So Sid asked Harry to think it over before making a decision but Harry vehemently stood his ground and asked Sid to perform the spell then and there.

Sid acknowledging Harry's resolve asked him to first to make sure that he had his Occlumency shields in place and that he was completely at peace in his mind. When Harry told Sid a few minutes later that he was ready, he asked Harry to stand up on the circular pattern containing various runes that Sid drew using his wand. Once Harry was in place, Sit put the Vessel of Essence in front of him and started chanting in Latin.

At first Harry did not feel anything but then as he noticed a soft milky glow surrounding the vessel, he started feeling the beginnings of a headache which soon turned into a full blown assault on his mind. If it weren't for his Occlumency shields then Harry was sure that he would have gone insane. Such was the onslaught of information on his mind that he didn't notice when he fell down and was on fours. On and one it went. It could have been seconds, minutes, days or even years, for Harry for the first time in his life understood the real meaning of pain. One part of him screamed at him to just let go and embrace unconsciousness whereas another part of him promised that doing so would be death. Harry didn't care; he just lay there crying silently while his mind and Occlumency shields worked overtime to make sure the inflow of information was categorically stored. Then at last it stopped and the last words that came out of Harry's mouth before he fell unconscious were "That hurt."

The next time Harry Potter woke up, he was a different person. He knew this as well as he knew himself. But strangely all the knowledge didn't faze harry in the least for he was finally at peace. Something changed inside him during that process that Harry was sure made him feel this laidback. For the first time since he saw Voldemort return that night in the graveyard, Harry wasn't worried. No he was in no way ready to defeat Voldemort but he was sure that the next time the two met, he wouldn't let Voldemort toy with him.

The rest of their time in the other dimension was majorly spent with Harry and Sid having as much as fun they could while they made their arrangements in order to get back to their dimension. It took another ten days before it was all done and Harry and Sid managed to get back to their dimension and to Sid's house from there. If any of Harry's friends were to see him now they would be shocked. Instead of looking skinny and under-nourished Harry was now looking well fed, filled out and inherently well muscled for an almost fifteen year old boy. No he wasn't bulky by any means; he just looked well toned and fit. Sid was having the time of his life teasing Harry about having to physically assault girls at Hogwarts for them to leave him alone.

The next month was probably one of the best he had ever had in Harry's opinion. Sid and Harry spent majority of the time either dueling or watching some or other movie or reading another book from Sid's library. As soon as they came back, Sid had made sure to make a copy of all his books and make Harry a similar library for which Harry was eternally grateful to the man. The only down side of being back in the real world were the dreams Harry had about the long black corridor. Initially Harry had tried to use his Occlumency to avoid his dreams but when after five consecutive nights he did not have any success, he approached Sid regarding the topic.

It was almost after ten days since they had come back from the other dimension that Harry approached Sid with his problem. He found Sid watching some American Sitcom in the living room, so he calmly went and sat on one of the couches before he steeled himself and called Sid's name. The moment Sid saw the expression on Harry's face he knew that something was wrong and so he promptly switched off the television and sat up asking Harry what the matter was. At first Harry hesitated a bit but then he began speaking.

"The first day I came here I had a dream. It was about this long black corridor with a single black door at the end of it. I didn't think too much into as a few days later we went into the other dimension and I never had this dream there. But ever since we came back, I have started having this dream again. I tried to avoid it using Occlumency but it didn't work. The thing is by the end of the dream when I wake up, I feel exhausted. The only other experiences I have of similar nature are the ones I had last year that involved Voldemort and I think this one might be connected to it."

As soon as Harry started describing his dream, Sid instantly knew what place he had been dreaming of as he had used that same corridor countless times every time he was working in England. It was the entrance corridor to the Department of Mysteries at the British Ministry of Magic. Though he was intrigued as to why Harry was dreaming about that corridor, he wasn't necessarily worried. But what had him worried was this connection of dreams that Harry had mentioned about between him and Voldemort. If Harry's Occlumency skills were not good enough to overcome these dreams then Sid was more than sure that it was another of the side effects of the scar on Harry's forehead which for some reason was like a connection between him and Voldemort.

It was a few minutes before Sid spoke. But when he did, he promised Harry that he would do his best to work out this mystery and find a viable solution for it.

It was almost another week before Sid managed to find the answer for Harry's problem. But what Sid told him didn't necessarily placate Harry. In fact it only worsened Harry's sense of foreboding. Apparently there was this prophecy that was made about Harry and Voldemort that exists in the Hall of Prophecy which Sid felt was the crux of the whole dream. Sid's guess was that Voldemort was tempting Harry hoping that his curiosity will lead him toward learning the identity of the place and finding out the contents of the prophecy all by himself, without consulting Dumbledore.

Harry would have scoffed at the thought as he was used to telling the headmaster about any such dreams and seeking his advice. But what Sid told him next completely threw him off. Apparently there was a group consisting of witches and wizards who were patrolling the Department of Mysteries. The catch being that the members of the group were all loyal to Dumbledore, or so Sid believed. Harry did not know what to make of it. First the thing with his family vault and now this revelation of prophecy led Harry to wonder as to what other secrets concerning him was the headmaster keeping from him.

It wasn't that Harry was worried about Voldemort getting the prophecy from the ministry. For thanks to Harry's enhanced knowledge he now knew that the prophecies were kept in the Hall of Prophecies at the Department of Mysteries and since the Minister is hell bent on denying Voldemort's return, it looked unlikely that Voldemort would risk exposure. Also, since only the subject of the prophecy will be able to remove the prophecy from the Hall, Harry was sure that at least for the moment, the prophecy was safe.

Yet he did not want to risk it and so he asked Sid whether he could find out the contents of the prophecy without anyone finding out his involvement. Sid assured Harry that he would do his best to work out a way for Harry to learn the contents of the prophecy.

Two days later Sid took Harry to the ministry via his private Floo which led them into the Office of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones. Sid had chosen her mainly because she had been good friends with his parents and was sort of an extended family to him. Moreover once Sid had told her about the entire situation with Harry's permission, she had agreed to help in any way she could without getting directly involved. In fact she told Harry that she knew both his parents and considered them good friends.

So upon exiting the Floo in her office early in the day so as to avoid any unnecessary crowd, the three exchanged pleasantries before Sid asked Harry to wear his invisibility cloak while he silenced Harry's feet. Once Harry was sufficiently concealed, Sid led him out of the office and toward the Department of Mysteries where they met the Head of the Department of Mysteries, Algernon Croaker. Croaker or Alex as Sid called him was a very good friend of Sid and was someone of whom Sid spoke with high respect. The man nodded once in their direction and silently turned and led them to the Hall of Prophecies.

Upon reaching the Hall, Sid took up the lead and led them to the row which had the prophecy in question. Once they were there, Sid looked at Croaker and nodded once to which the man simply took out his wand and cast a few privacy and illusion charms and then said, "We're good."

Immediately Sid turned to Harry and nodded which was the signal for Harry to remove the invisibility cloak. Once he was visible, Sid put a hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "Harry let me introduce you to the one person who is the sole reason why the British ministry still has a Department of Mysteries. Algernon Croaker" and then turning to Croaker he said, "Alex allow me to introduce to you the only man I wouldn't want to end up in a life and death battle with. Harry Potter."

Chuckling at Sid's introduction style Croaker extended his right hand and said, "Mr. Potter, it's a pleasure to have your acquaintance."

Harry smiled and shook his extended hand and said, "Likewise Sir and its Harry, just Harry. Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it."

"Think nothing of it Harry and call me Alex." Replied a smiling Alex

Suddenly Sid put a hand on Harry's shoulder and pointed to the prophecy which had a small description tag beneath it which said ―

**S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D**

**Dark Lord**

**and (?) Harry Potter**

With a sense of great expectation Harry extended his hand and picked up the dusty looking orb expecting something dramatic to happen. In fact if it weren't for the slight glow surrounding the orb and the feeling of warmth in his hands, Harry would have vouched that it was a cheap roadside trinket. Looking up at the two curious wizards in his company Harry said, "I'm sorry! I was really hoping for something dramatic."

Sid chuckled and said, "You will have to tap it twice with your and say 'Reveal' if you want to listen to its content."

Nodding Harry did as Sid directed and waited in order to hear the contents of the prophecy. What he heard next was something Harry was sure he couldn't have prepared for no matter how old or experienced he became. The moment he said the word 'reveal', an ethereal projection of Sybil Trelawney rose from the orb and spoke in the same heavy, harsh voice he remembered from that afternoon in his third year.

"_THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES…BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT…AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES…THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…"_

It took a few minutes for the either one of them to react. In the end it was Sid who recovered first and said, "Alright now that we know the content of the prophecy, we can work on deciphering it at leisure. The first thing we need to decide is what to do with the orb now that we know the content. Harry, what's your thought?"

Harry despite the devastating revelation was feeling a strange sense of calmness. It was like getting the answer to a question, that he long taken guessing to. He now knew for sure as to why Voldemort came after him, year after year. In the end it was down to the two of them. So with a calmness and assurance that he never knew he possessed, Harry looked at Sid and said, "The whole reason I wanted to learn the content was to understand Voldemort's reasoning and now I do. If we remove the orb, there is a good chance that both Voldemort and Dumbledore will somehow realize that I know the prophecy, which will make them act in a different way that I have no clue about. So for now, let's leave it as it is. If necessary we can always come back and remove it."

Alex was impressed with the way Harry was reacting to the situation. His years of being an Unspeakable had taught him that the best way to tackle something tricky and devastating was to handle it with calmness and serenity. He was sure that someone else in Harry's place would have been turned into an emotional mess but not Harry. The young man had faced far too many challenges in his life until now to feel any bit of unfairness with this new devastating piece of information.

Sid was thinking along the same lines as Alex but since he knew Harry he wasn't particularly surprised by his reaction so instead of offering any words of comfort that he was sure will only piss Harry further, he simply said, "Alright Harry. That's a good idea. Now put it right back where you took it from."

As soon as Harry had placed the orb back, Sid looked at Alex and asked, "Alex I believe your secrecy oaths will make sure that the information stays safe at your end?" when Alex nodded he then looked at Harry and said, "Harry put the cloak back on so that we can get out of here."

When Harry was yet again sufficiently hidden, Croaker removed all the privacy and illusion charms that he had put up and the trio walked out of the Hall and the Department where Alex parted ways with them with a nod in their direction and Sid led Harry back to Amelia's office where her Secretary upon seeing Sid notified Amelia of his presence and soon it was just the three of them inside her office.

The moment her Secretary walked out, Amelia cast a few privacy charms before asking, "Well, how bad is it?"

Sid rubbed his face tiredly while Harry removed his invisibility cloak and folded it neatly. Recognizing that Sid was waiting for him to respond in this case Harry looked at Amelia and said, "Well if Voldemort was trying to kill me as a matter of pride until now then let's just say that he needs to sort out his priorities. In the end it's either him or me. That's the essence of it."

The expression of shock on Amelia's face made it very clear that whatever she was expecting was nowhere close to what the reality was. In the end she settled for a simple, "Oh this is bad."

Sid and Harry nodded in agreement before Sid quickly played the emotional angle and brought Harry back to his place. No matter how close he was to Amelia, he wasn't willing to take any risk whatsoever with the details of the prophecy which he was sure Amelia would be desperate to hear.

Once they both were seated in the living room Sid asked Harry to perform the information safeguarding version of the Fidelius charm with himself as the secret keeper. When Harry tried to object saying that he trusted him, Sid merely shook his head and said that it was not about trust but about keeping the information safe and so Harry performed the charm using his untraceable wand and a few minutes later he repeated the wordings of the prophecy to Sid so that they can decipher it properly.

Later that night, while in bed Harry was having a hard time deciding whether he should be thankful to the headmaster for keeping such a heavy burden of him or hate him for not informing him sooner and begin his training which he would have desperately needed if not for his training with Sid. Even after hours of back and forth thinking, he wasn't any closer to deciding upon how he wanted to treat the headmaster and so he fell into an emotionally troubled sleep.

As expected he was back in the long black corridor, but unlike before he knew what lay behind that lone black door. Yet he played along for he knew that he had to act like he was intrigued or Voldemort will realize that something was wrong. It was almost dawn by the time Harry fell asleep.

The days leading up to his birthday were too emotionally loaded as far as Harry was concerned. The main reason being that Harry was sure his friends were hiding information from him. He couldn't for the life of him understand why they would react that way. Even Sirius's letters were scarce on information and more about asking him to keep his head down. If it weren't for Sid's subscription of Daily Prophet, Harry wouldn't even know the smear campaign that the Ministry had undertaken against him and the headmaster. Finally Harry lost his cool on his birthday when the card that Hermione has sent him along with his birthday gift of 'Professional Quidditch League Aspirants' Guidebook', had an anecdote of "I expect we'll be seeing you quite soon".

The day had started nicely for him. When he had come down after getting ready for the day, Sid had prepared a nice breakfast of French toast and grape juice for him. After he had eaten, he saw that Sid had put all the gifts and letters from his friends on the table in the living room.

Ron had sent him a box of Chocolate Frogs along with a Birthday Card. Ron's mother Mrs. Weasley had sent him a cake and so had Sirius along with a card and yet another letter. Hermione's was the biggest surprise for him as he didn't expect her to give him a Quidditch related book.

Then when he read Sirius' letter and Hermione's casual reference, he saw red because it was clear that his friends were together and he was supposedly stuck at Privet Drive. Ok, so maybe he was not at Privet Drive but still that did not mean he didn't want to be included in the scheme of things. So he started pacing around the living room, cursing about being kept in the dark by his own friends and godfather. This was the state in which Sid found him when he came into the living room after a while.

Instead of asking him the reason for his ranting, Sid quietly looked at the two cakes before he asked, "Harry do you mind cutting these cakes? They look delicious and I haven't had a cake in quite some time."

Harry immediately stopped pacing and looked at Sid before he burst into laughter prompting Sid to join him as well. After a few moments he thanked Sid for lightening the mood and told him the reason for his ranting.

Sid in response nodded as if in understanding and said, "Harry, I didn't want to tell you this. But a few days back when I was at the Ministry, Bill came in to meet me accompanied by none other than Dumbledore himself."

When Harry raised his eyebrow in question Sid continued, "Yup. Apparently Bill told him about me and Dumbledore it seemed was genuinely hoping to have someone like me on his team. So he told me all about the Order of the Phoenix, which was founded by him to fight Voldemort in the first war."

"He then tried to convince me about Voldemort's return and that he was reviving the order in hopes of stopping Voldemort early this time. I have to tell you, the man has a way with words. If I didn't know you then I would have been tempted. So I politely let him down saying that since I was in a delicate position, my involvement could cause tension between the British Ministry and our Ministry if I were to be ever discovered. But I promised him that I would try to discuss this matter with my seniors back home and see what support I can gather."

"Although he wasn't very happy, he understood my reasoning and thanked me for thinking about putting in a word with our ministry back home. I told you this because I think your friends are staying at the Order's headquarters as a safety measure now that Voldemort's back. If he can't get to you then your friends become his next obvious target. But for the life of me I can't understand why they aren't telling you stuff. I mean I'm sure they can find a way to tell you stuff without jeopardizing its integrity."

Harry could only nod in understanding as he was thinking the very same things. He wasn't angry with them. He was just frustrated and irritated that they didn't put more effort into giving him relevant information. But before he could brood too much, Sid brought him back to the present by saying that he had gifts for Harry and went into his Study to get them.

When he came out, the first thing Harry noticed was that he was carrying way too many things to be classified as gifts for a single birthday. When he asked Sid, he was told that since he didn't accept any gifts for the birthdays he spent in the other dimension, Sid got him six gifts for six birthdays including this one. When he went to protest that it was too much, Sid refused to listen to any reason and plainly started handing him over his gifts one by one.

He started by handing Harry two small circular white containers which upon opening Harry realized contained a pair of contact lenses. He looked at Sid who then explained that these were specifically created masterpieces by the Department of Mysteries. The contacts were auto-corrective and allowed the wearer to look through any illusions or charms in a particular person, spot or an entire building all at once, no matter how ancient or powerful they might be as long as it wasn't Fidelius protected. They also gave the wearer Mage Sight which allowed one to look through any ward, vessel, signature or source of magic. But above all they were permanent, meaning they dissolved into one's eyes and would stay so for life. Sid assured Harry that his lenses would make Mad-eye Moody's magical eye look like a cheap street side imitation. Harry immediately removed his glasses and wore them. The difference was incredible. Everything was so clear and precise. He couldn't wait to get back onto the Quidditch field with these lenses. He vowed that he would check out the Mage Sight later in the evening.

The next gift Sid gave him was a black Dragon hide jacket which he was told was charmed to fit the wearer according to his size and was also spell resistant. He then gave Harry a pair of black Dragon hide boots which was again charmed to fit the wearer.

The next gift Sid gave Harry had him looking confused. So Sid told Harry that it was in actuality charmed to act as a mode of emergency communication or an emergency Portkey. It was a fancy looking Swiss watch in fine craftsmanship that had a Silver dial and black leather straps and was charmed to be unbreakable. Sid explained that if he were in trouble all he had to do was tap the watch twice and say either 'Backup' or 'Hideout' depending on his need and the respective feature will be activated.

In case of him saying 'Backup', Sid will receive a small orb which when activated will show him where Harry is exactly so that he could reach him whereas if he said 'Hideout' then the Portkey would bring him to this house from where he could figure out what to do next. Harry was genuinely touched. He had no idea what it was that he could say that would express his gratitude to Sid completely. Sid noticing his expression and guessing what he was thinking, just patted him on the shoulder which meant, "Don't worry about it mate."

He then gave Harry an onyx cube similar to the one he had used at Stonehenge but this one had more runes and was slightly bigger. When Harry asked him the details, Sid said it had multiple uses. It could either be used as a ward neutralizer, meaning if someone was powerful enough then they could use this onyx cube to break through wards; nothing like Hogwarts but enough to bring down a few wards that would allow one to either escape or get help. It could also be used as a conductor for magic, meaning if Harry wanted to setup wards or protective enchantments and illusions then he could use this cube to use the ambient magic to construct them rather than powering them himself.

The last thing that Sid gave Harry had him immediately shaking his head in denial saying that it was too much. Sid had gotten him a Pensieve and Harry knowing how valuable and rare they were, refused to accept it as a birthday gift but Sid in the end convinced him to accept it.

Once Sid was done giving his gifts, both of them ate the two cakes Harry had gotten without further delay, enjoying its creamy goodness. Harry spent the rest of the day in high spirits even going so far as to joke that if he could he would go out and bring a girl back home. In the end both of them decided on settling for a Toy Story movie marathon.

When at the end of it Harry insisted they watch something else, Sid offered to charm a Laptop separately for Harry if he wanted so that he could watch any movie he wanted at his leisure. But Harry shot him off saying that he was in fact planning to do that bit once he got back to his friend's place or wherever it was that the headmasters wanted him to spend the remainder of his holidays.

It was at this point that Sid cautioned Harry to be careful about revealing his knowledge and abilities in front of others. He told Harry that it wasn't so much about keeping it a secret rather it was about maintaining an edge. But he told Harry that he should at least tell his two best friends about what actually happened over the summer as they will be a huge help to him if he got in trouble for his new found knowledge.

Harry agreed that Sid's reasoning was logical but thought that his suggestion of sharing the truth about his summer with his best friends might not a good idea as he was sure that Ron would spill his guts out the moment his mother and the headmaster got involved whereas Hermione would straight away berate him for breaking the rules followed by threatening him to share the reality of his summer with the headmaster. After all he still remembered what she did during his third year with respect to his Firebolt.

So instead he decided to tell two people he knew would never betray his secrets mainly because they had way too much experience with respect to keeping things secret from people close to them. Though he promised Sid that he would keep the knowledge about his untraceable wand and his ability cast spells with both wands simultaneously a secret.

Sid was satisfied with that as he was more than sure that anything Harry that wanted to keep as a secret would never be revealed one way or another as his Occlumency was practically impenetrable. So with that Harry started telling Sid about who he was going to share his secrets with and what he was planning to tell the rest of his friends. By the time they went to bed Harry had a good plan about how to tackle every question that would be thrown at him. Sid had been a great when he had pointed out the flaws in Harry's plan and helped him make it better.

A couple of days later it was while Harry was finishing his evening cup of coffee that Sid came bursting into the house and asked Harry to pack every single one of his possession while he ran into his study. Having spent enough time with Sid, Harry knew that it was better to do what Sid asked before asking the reason as Sid rarely showed such urgency. So Harry quickly ran up to his room and used magic to pack all of his possession in the trunk that Sid had given him before they left for his training. Five minutes later, Harry came down with all his stuff packed inside his trunk, which he had shrunken along with Hedwig's cage and put it inside the pocket of his jeans.

When Sid saw Harry enter, without waiting for Harry to ask the question, he responded by saying, "The day after I brought you here, I had gone back to Surrey while you were sleeping. I put up a few wards right outside Surrey's border that would alert me when any witch, wizard or magical creature entered the county's border. All the signatures that I got until now belonged to the ones that are associated with Dumbledore but a few minutes back when I was in the community market, I got a new signature alert that belonged to a pair of Dementors."

"Now I don't know why they are there, but it cannot be good and I'm sure that Dumbledore's order members will let him know about it. So it is better if we got you back to Privet Drive in case anyone wanted to check up on you."

The moment he finished talking Sid extended a rolled up copy of an old Daily Prophet and said, "Harry I need your permission to set this Portkey to take us to your room." When Harry nodded, he tapped his wand at it and muttered, "Portus." The newspaper glowed blue and trembled in his for a few seconds and then became still once more. He then extended it toward Harry. Knowing that it was better to talk once they were back to his room, Harry silently touched the Portkey and felt the familiar tug at the back of his navel as soon as Sid said, "Dursleys".

When his feet touched solid ground, Harry immediately took out his trunk and Hedwig's cage and resized them using his untraceable wand and put both of them in their usual spot before he turned to Sid who in the meanwhile was removing all the distraction and illusion charms he had setup and asked, "So this is it? I guess it will be sometime before we see each other again right?"

Sid smiled at him apologetically and said, "Yes it is Harry. But you know that you can get in touch with me anytime you want right?" when Harry nodded he further said, "Harry trust me when I say this, I will definitely miss you. It's been a long time since I had someone whom I called family. Oh, I do have a family back home but you know what I mean."

Harry instead of saying anything just embraced Sid in a hug pouring all his feelings and gratitude for all that Sid had done for him. Sid too reciprocated the hug knowing that for someone private and reserved like Harry to embrace him openly showed how much he cared for Sid.

As soon as the hug ended, Sid patted Harry's cheek like an affectionate elder brother and said, "Stay safe and keep in touch" and as Harry nodded, he picked up the Daily Prophet that had fallen when the two landed and said, "Sid's Studio" before disappearing into thin air.

True to Sid's prediction a few minutes after Sid had left Harry heard his uncle bellow "BOY GET DOWN HERE" which let Harry knew that something unusual had happened in the house.

When he got downstairs he was expecting a witch or a wizard who had come up to check on him and instead found himself facing his childhood babysitter Mrs. Figg. The moment she saw Harry, she rushed in avoiding his uncle who was turning a new shade of purple with every passing moment and said, "Harry! Thank god you are in the house and not outside."

Harry knew that he had to act surprised in order for her to believe that he was living here all the while, so instead he said, "Mrs. Figg. I'm sorry but why is it good that I'm in the house and not outside?"

Mrs. Figg started fidgeting nervously before she leaned in and whispered, "I never told you Harry, but I'm a Squib. Dumbledore asked me to keep an eye on you this summer. You know after his return and all. As for why I'm happy you are inside, I saw a couple of rouge Dementors near Wisteria Walk and contacted Dumbledore immediately. He asked me to check up on you."

Harry instead of responding just simply nodded, acknowledging the news and the revelation about Dumbledore placing guards to look after him. Soon Mrs. Figg left to go back to her house. As soon as the door closed his uncle rounded on him and bellowed, "WHAT THE DEVIL HAVE YOU DONE NOW BOY? AND WHERE DID YOU GET THESE NEW CLOTHES FROM? I DON'T REMEMBER GIVING YOU ANY MONEY. ARE YOU STEALING NOW BOY?"

Before his uncle could go on any further, Harry took out his untraceable wand and silenced him and wordlessly threw him onto the couch. Immediately his aunt screamed and Dudley advanced on him as if he was about to hit Harry. So Harry silenced them both and made them join his uncle on the couch with a flick of his wand before saying, "First, I haven't done anything. She just came to check up on me following headmaster Dumbledore's order. Second, it is none of your business as to where I got the money to buy this dress from. Like you said, you didn't give me the money and so I do not owe you any answers. Now as you noticed I can perform magic without getting in trouble with our ministry, so you will stay out of my way so that all of us can carry on with our lives. Have I made myself clear?"

When all three of his relatives nodded with fear filled faces he simply said, "Good" before he lifted the silencing charm and walked back up to his room, all the while thinking that may be spending a few days with the Dursleys wasn't all that bad so long as he had his magic to threaten them.

A/N: First of all, thank you for such an overwhelming response. You guys totally rock! Please never ever change.

Second, I'm really sorry for this delayed update. I was too tied up with work and hence didn't have the time to sit down peacefully and write. But now I'm all sorted and I assure you that you can expect another update in the next couple of days.

Like I say every other time, let me know your thoughts and ideas via reviews or PMs.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE – THE DAY I LEFT HERMIONE GRANGER SPEECHLESS

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

For the umpteenth time Harry was wondering as to why he hadn't lived his life like this until now. The Dursleys had yet again left early that morning in order to visit Aunt Marge at the hospital who had been hospitalized due to a major Liver infection.

Ever since that evening after the talk he had had with them post Mrs. Figg's visit, his relatives had given him a very wide birth. So Harry had gone ahead and transfigured his entire room to look like his room at Sid's and made sure that none of his relatives could come into his room with the help of a few well placed wards.

So morning after Mrs. Figg's visit, when the Dursleys had left, Harry had made himself a nice breakfast after which he had decided to watch a movie at a nearby theatre while making sure that he was sufficiently disguised before hw walked out of the house. It was there that he bumped into Sarah. He had first met Sarah when he had gone out to a pub near Sid's place. When he had spoken to her, he had found out that she was a couple of years older than him, but that hadn't stopped her from flirting with him. Sid had even berated him for not finding out more about her and for not taking her contact details.

So he was quite surprised to see her in Surrey. On questioning further he found out that she had come to stay with her uncle in Surrey. Not wanting to miss another chance at getting to know her better, Harry immediately offered to take her to lunch. It was a quite a while before either of them got back to their respective place of residence.

It was now almost five days since they had been in touch. It was thanks to his time with Sid that Harry was able to recognize that Sarah was apparently very interested in him right from the very first day they met. If he had been the old Harry, then he was sure he would have made a fool out of himself. Instead it had come to the point where both he and Sarah had willingly gotten physical with each other.

When Harry had told her that he would be leaving to his friend's house in a few days time he had done so wanting to make it clear to her that he wasn't looking for a serious relationship. Sarah had responded simply by telling him that he was a good person for letting her know his stand before they got any further and that she herself wasn't looking forward to a serious relationship anytime soon. That being said, she was also clear that she was perfectly fine with the two of them getting physical and parting ways as friends like level headed individuals.

So when Harry and Sarah got dressed and walked down to the living room that evening after their recent amorous escapade, they were not expecting to find a group of people waiting for them. The moment Sarah screamed Harry immediately pulled her behind him and looked at Moody, Remus and everyone else who had their wands out and said, "For heaven's sake, put that away you guys."

When they all did so, Harry slowly turned and looked at Sarah who was looking at him wide eyed and said, "Sarah, relax, they are friends. Nobody is going to hurt us" and as Sarah fearfully nodded, he continued, "Now I want you to think about all that you saw from the moment you entered this room until this moment. Can you do that?" when Sarah nodded yet again, he quickly looked at Remus and mouthed, "Obliviate" who instantly understood Harry's hint and performed the memory charm on Sarah.

As soon as Sarah came around, Harry casually told her that the people in the room were all teachers from his boarding school and that they were here to escort him over to a friend's place for a party and that it must have somehow slipped his mind. He also told her that she was welcome to join them. Feeling a little out of sort due to the memory charm, Sarah had told Harry that she was feeling little off, so she was going back to her place early and that she was sorry she couldn't join him. Harry had told her that it was fine and that he would keep in touch with her. So Sarah just gave him a quick hug and a kiss before she left the house.

The moment the door closed, Remus looked at Harry with a beaming smile and said, "I didn't peg you for a ladies' man Harry."

Harry knowing that Remus was trying to pull his leg decided to return the favor by saying, "What can I say Moony? I'm the boy who lived who out flew a dragon after all" and then deciding to mess with the violet-haired witch who was probably in her early twenties, he said, "Nice knickers by the way."

The violet-haired witch immediately started blushing and spluttering said, "How? How did you?" What made it even more special was that she turned out to be a Metamorphmagus and so as she blushed, her hair turned bright red as well.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders and gave her a lopsided grin before saying, "I have my ways", then turned to Remus and said, "So what's this all about? I guess I should thank those Dementors after all. Otherwise I'm sure I'd stuck here for some more time."

Remus who was looking at Harry with bewilderment, rubbed his face with his hands and said, "It's not like that Harry. As much as I'd like to tell you everything, I can't do so here. We need to leave soon. But before that let me introduce everyone to you" and with that Remus introduced every single member of the group. Once he had finished the introductions Harry asked Remus as to how they were leaving and was told that since he was underage they had to use broomsticks as apparition was out of the question and they just did not have enough pull to create an illegal Portkey. When Harry nodded in understanding, the violet-haired witch whom Remus had introduced as Tonks said that she would help him pack along with Remus.

So Harry just nodded and led them both up to his room. The moment he opened his room, Harry mentally cursed himself as he saw both Remus and Tonks staring at him and the room wide eyed. Harry waited patiently for them to respond. Remus was the first to recover and he immediately grabbed Harry by the shoulders and said urgently "Harry, you used magic to do all this?"

Harry in an attempt to lighten up the mood said, "No Remus. I just bought a new room and put it in place of my old room."

But Remus was having none of it and said in a scolding tone, "Harry, the punishment for underage magic is very severe in our world. What possessed you to do something like this?"

Having had enough of Remus's parental behavior, Harry looked him in the eye and said, "I wanted to do it and so I found a way to do it without the ministry finding it out. End of story. Now let it go Remus."

When he turned away from Remus, what he saw made him want to bang his head against the wall. Harry in a moment of madness had joked to Sarah that she should leave him with something of hers to remember the great first time they had together and shockingly she had in fact obliged. The pearl white knickers dangling by the end of Tonks' wand, was the keepsake given to him by Sarah.

Harry immediately walked up to Tonks and grabbed the Knickers and stuffed it into the pocket of his pants. When he turned, he saw Remus looking around the room at everything that was strewn on the floor while Tonks was busy changing her hair color while standing in front of the mirror. He knew what was coming next and was not disappointed when Remus asked, "Harry, how do you plan to fit all of this stuff into your trunk?"

Harry knowing that he didn't have any way out of this, looked at Remus and said, "Don't worry about it. I can take care of it all. But you have to keep quiet for now. Agreed?" when Remus nodded, he immediately used his Wandless abilities to levitate every single possession of his that was strewn around the room except his Firebolt, into his trunk and then again waved his hands over the trunk once which made everything inside the trunk to sort itself out properly.

He then took Hedwig's empty cage and put that also inside the trunk. He was sure his familiar would know where to find him. After that he quickly shut the trunk and flicked his right hand which brought his Holly and Phoenix feather wand into his hand and tapped the trunk with it twice which locked it and shrunk it into the size of a matchbox. He then flicked his hand again and the wand went back to its holster while he put his shrunken trunk inside the jacket's pocket.

With that he picked up his Firebolt and turned to his two companions and said, "Alright I'm set. Let's go."

Remus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, "When we get to where we are going, you have quite a bit of explaining to do Harry."

Harry knowing that Remus's reaction was one out of concern, simply nodded and turned to Tonks who was still busy changing her hair color and said, "Pink suits you Tonks" and then as an afterthought said, "Just like your knickers." Tonks immediately squeaked and ran out of the room blushing while spluttering something about 'naughty teenagers'.

Harry then turned to Remus with a bemused expression on his face and said, "After you Remus" but instead of walking Remus pointed to Harry's transfigured room and Harry immediately understanding what Remus meant, waved his hand a couple of times restoring his room back to its former state wandlessly.

Once that was done, Harry turned to Remus with a beaming smile and pointed toward the door. Remus for his part just shook his head and walked out of the room and Harry followed him just a step behind.

When they had returned to the living room, Moody led them all out to the back garden all the while barking out the plan to everyone. Once there Moody wanted to disillusion Harry but Harry refused to be disillusioned and said that there was no point in disillusioning just him while the others remained visible. Whereas if they all disillusioned themselves, then it will be difficult to spot one another once they got in the air. Moody grudgingly grunted that Harry was right and so once they got the signal, all of them got on their respective brooms and flew into the London night sky.

It was almost an hour before Harry felt Remus shouting that they were about to reach their destination. So lost was he in enjoying the feel of being back in the air that he didn't have a clue about the route they had come by. All that he knew was that he had made an attempt to keep in sight of his group. But behind that he didn't remember anything. Once they landed, Remus quickly led Harry across the payment to an ordinary looking street in London while behind them Moody quickly used a Put-Outer which he had apparently borrowed from Dumbledore, to plunge the street into darkness. He looked at Remus and raised an eyebrow in question but it was Moody who provided him the answer by shoving a piece of parchment into his hand and saying, "Memorize it."

Harry did as he was told in the wand light provided by Moody and soon saw a house appear out of nowhere by pushing aside the two houses on either of its side like it was pretty normal stuff. Harry knew that this was the regular Fidelius charm so he wasn't surprised. But for the sake of his companions, who were watching him for his reaction, responded by saying, "Fidelius in the middle of muggle London. Not bad."

It took all his years of pranking experience for Remus to keep a straight face. The other members of the group weren't so calm. Everyone was expecting to see Harry go wide eyed at watching Fidelius' magic at work. But what they saw instead was a young man who spoke as if witnessing the Fidelius charm at work was a very normal thing for him. He wasn't sure what led to this change in Harry but after what happened at the end of last school year, any reason that allowed Harry to keep his sanity and allowed him to behave like a normal teenager, was perfectly acceptable to him. So instead he just asked Harry to quickly get inside while Moody put the lights back into the street lamp using the Put-Outer.

When Harry allowed Remus to hurry him inside, he was honestly expecting a better place than a dark and gloomy hallway. Though nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. Tonks squeezed past him to go further into the house before she stumbled over an umbrella stand that Harry thought looked like a severed Troll leg, sending both her and the umbrella stand crashing onto the floor. This in turn led to a curtain being blow open to his left side which revealed the portrait of an old woman who started screaming about mudbloods, blood traitors and half blood abominations sullying her home, while Remus and a long black haired man who had come running out the moment the old woman had started screaming, tried to close the curtains on her portrait while Tonks was apologizing over and over for causing all this ruckus as more and more people came up from the basement.

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at the antics of the old woman's portrait. Apparently no one had ever rolled their eyes in front of her, because the moment the old woman saw Harry do this, she paused her cursing and glared at Harry with a look of disdain. Harry for his part recognized his opening and immediately used it and said, "You know, for all your screaming and cursing, it is you who is actually behaving like an inbred banshee. I mean look at you. Even after being dead you are stuck on this wall unhappily while you scream yourself raw and for what? Just to scream foul words at people who really don't give a damn about what you think? I mean seriously woman. Get a life!"

To say that the old woman in the painting was shocked would be an understatement. She was gaping at him as if he had come from some other world. Remus and the long black haired man used this opportunity to quickly draw the curtains on the portrait.

As soon as he had successfully closed the curtains on the old woman's portrait, the long black haired man turned to Harry and said, "Harry, I see you've met my mother."

Harry grinned at his godfather Sirius and grabbed him in a hug without as much as a word. Sirius for his part returned the hug in equal fervor. As soon he was free he saw Ron's mother Mrs. Weasley coming toward him and allowed her to give him her famous rib-cracking hugs and fuss over his growth spurt and the need to eat more healthy amount of food before she led him upstairs to the room in which Ron and Hermione were waiting while everyone went downstairs to the basement for the Order meeting that was about to start.

In her haste to lead Harry upstairs, Mrs. Weasley never saw Harry wandlessly perform a charm on the basement kitchen door that would notify him once the meeting ended. Once they reached the second floor landing she asked him to go into the door on the right where he was supposed to sleep with Ron while she told him that she would come and get him once the meeting was over before walking back downstairs.

Harry crossed the dingy landing, turned the room's doorknob, which was shaped like a serpent's head, and opened the door. It seemed like Hermione was about to throw herself at him for a tight hug, but what she saw in him must have brought her up short. Harry had to control the urge to laugh at the look on his best friend's face. She and Ron were standing there frozen in place, mouths hanging open as they took in his new appearance. After seeing him in his skinny underfed body wearing Dudley's cast offs, this new look of his was sure to leave them shell shocked. He was wearing a black round neck full sleeve t shirt and gray cargo pants that fit him perfectly along with the black dragon hide Jacket and boots that Sid had gifted him for his birthday. Not to forget the fact that he wasn't wearing his glasses anymore, so the color of his eyes was more richly visible. All of this coupled with his well toned out physique was sure to leave anyone who knew him wide eyed. Neither Ron nor Hermione seemed capable of saying anything.

"Harry, you look amazing" gasped Hermione suddenly.

Harry just shrugged indifferently as if he seeing this reaction wasn't new to him. He did however notice that Hermione's face drooped at his response. Instead he decided to cut to the heart of his issue with them and asked, "So, I guess you've both been too busy to write?"

The reaction was as he expected. Both Hermione and Ron winced at the bluntness of his question and Ron immediately started making his excuses by saying, "Harry mate, we wanted to write but Dumbledore―" that was as far as he got before he suddenly found himself staring into Harry's angry eyes. Ron gulped while Hermione in a small nervous voice said, "We really did want to write to you Harry but Dumbledore made us swear that we won't say anything to you."

Harry turned from Ron to her with a look of furious disbelief that clearly told Hermione that she had just made matters worse. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose as if to calm himself down and then said in a detached voice, "You know that's funny because if I had wanted then I'm sure I could have found a way to communicate to my best friend who I was sure was stuck with his relatives with no way of knowing what was happening" and then suddenly all the half filled letters, all the frustration over his best friends keeping stuff for him, everything came to the forefront of Harry's mind and he started yelling at them.

"I WAS THERE! I WAS THE ONE WHO SAW HIM RETURN. I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD TO FIGHT HIM. DON'T YOU THINK I SHOULD BE INFORMED IF SOMETHING IS BEING DONE TO FIGHT HIM?" Then he turned away from them and took a deep breath and said in a much calmer voice, "While you two were here, I was stuck there all by myself with absolutely no news, all the time wondering what Voldemort was up to. I was spending hours cooped up inside my room while all I wanted was to get out there and fight him."

When both Ron and Hermione tried sputtering their excuse about doing nothing but spending all their time cleaning the place, Harry just gave them a disbelieving grunt and flopped down on the bed. As much as he knew that they had kept stuff from him, he knew that he was equally guilty on that front. But unlike them he had a valid reason for his silence whereas they had done so merely because the headmaster had asked them not to say anything to him. And when he thought about how he had successfully fooled them all and did all that he had done to give himself an edge, he could barely keep himself from laughing out loud. He wasn't looking forward to the day when he would have to share it with them. But before he could think about anything else, Fred and George appeared into the room out of thin air with twin cracks.

"Ah, Harry" began Fred.

"We thought we heard your dulcet tones" finished George.

Harry having noticed the flesh colored strings they were holding, had used his lenses to deduce that they were charmed to be some sort of an eavesdropping product, decided to mess with the twin pranksters and said, "Gred, Forge, heard anything secretive of lately?"

The twins frowned and looked at him suspiciously before Fred began and said, "Nothing" and then George finished by saying, "There's some sort of a charm on the door."

Harry merely raised his eyebrow in question before sat up and looked down to the floor and used his lenses to check the door of the kitchen in the basement for all the charms that were put up on it. He picked up the one which would prevent the eavesdropping devices or any other item from reaching the door and then looked back at the twins and said, "Someone's charmed the door to be imperturbable."

The reaction to his statement was immediate. The twins as well as Ron and Hermione started asking him how he did that without caring for whether Harry understood either of their questions. Harry just sat there looking at them bemusedly. It was then that he saw the door opening and Ron's younger sister Ginny getting into the room. Thanking his luck for the distraction, he immediately looked at her and said, "Hey Ginny!"

Ginny looked at him brightly and immediately went wide eyed, before she collected herself and said, "Oh hello, Harry! I thought I heard your voice." And then she quickly looked at her twin brothers and said "It's no good with the Extendable Ears. Mum's put an Imperturbable charm on the kitchen door."

George looked at her with a frown and asked, "How do you know that?"

"Tonks told me how to find out. You just chuck stuff at the door. If it doesn't make contact then the door is imperturbed. I have been chucking Dung bombs at the door from the top of the stairs but they just soar away from the door." said Ginny.

Fred was just about to say something but Harry stopped him by put up his hand, because at that moment he had felt the tingle from the charm he had put on the kitchen door signaling that the meeting had just ended. So he just looked at the twins and said, "The meeting's just ended. Your mum will be coming up any moment now."

True to his word a few minutes later, Mrs. Weasley came up to the room to tell them all that the meeting had gotten over and that they were going to have dinner now, so everyone should follow her downstairs. With that said she turned and started walking and Ginny and Ron followed her without a second thought, whereas Hermione had looked at him with narrowed eyes that clearly said he and her were going to have a long chat soon. But it wasn't that which bothered him.

Just like he knew they would, the twins had realized that something was different with him apart from just the change in his appearance and the next words that came out of their mouths confirmed his theory completely.

"Is there something you'd like to tell us little Harrikins?" began Fred with a determined expression.

"Because if you won't then you should know that we are more than capable of finding it out ourselves" finished George as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Harry knew that he had chosen well when he had decided to share his identity with these two because he was sure that if there was anyone capable of keeping his secret from slipping out and yet keep a look out for him, then it would be these two pranksters. So he just stood up and chuckled at their twin speak before saying, "Come to my room after dinner and I'll tell you everything."

Both of them nodded before following Harry down to the kitchen. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he took the empty chair next to Sirius while the twins took the seats opposite him while Mrs. Weasley was bustling around the kitchen trying to get the dinner arranged on the table. He also saw that Tonks was entertaining Hermione and Ginny by changing her noses and the way they were making specific demands told him that it was a regular affair.

So he just leaned back in his chair and surveyed the order members while trying to decide how to best drop the bomb. Sirius who was bouncing in the seat next to him with barely suppressed excitement, it seemed had other ideas.

The moment he saw Harry come into the kitchen and take the seat next to him Sirius had wanted to confirm all that he had heard from Remus. So the moment Harry had settled down and relaxed, he decided to hell with the niceties and get straight to the point and asked the question he wanted answered the most.

"So what's this I hear about Tonks finding pearl white knickers in your room and you having a girl with you when you came down from your bedroom?"

The reaction was immediate; every single person part from Remus and Tonks who had witnessed this all at the Dursleys stopped what they were doing as if in a frozen stupor and turn to look at him as one. Harry threw a nasty look at Sirius who for his part just wiggled his eyebrows. Harry just closed his eyes and shook his head a bit before he answered the question.

"What you heard was nothing but the truth Sirius. Yes I did have a girl over at my place and yes, we did do the dirty dance without our pants before we came down and found the order members waiting for me. Yes, the knickers that Tonks discovered in my room did indeed belong to the same girl. And before you ask me all about her, she wasn't the only girl with whom I got naughty this summer."

The expression on everyone's face made Harry realize that it was worth getting grilled just to see them all like this. Mrs. Weasley had gone absolutely still while her face was turning a new shade of white with every passing second. He was sure that she would soon corner him and give him a talk about proper behavior or have Mr. Weasley give him the talk. Ron was looking at him with something akin to awe where as the twins were wiping fake tears from their eyes while looking at him with a sappy expression as if they were happy that Harry had at last grown up.

Sirius on the other hand looked like he couldn't more prouder of his godson whereas Remus, Bill and Mr. Weasley while trying to keep a straight face but were failing miserably if their twitching lips were any indication. The girls were an altogether different story as Tonks just sat there as if it was perfectly normal for a fifteen year old to behave in that manner whereas both Ginny and Hermione's faces were red with blush and the looks they gave Harry told him as if they couldn't believe he would be capable of doing something like that. Mundungus was just plain oblivious to the whole affair as he was sleeping away merrily in a corner.

He knew who would be the first one to respond and was proven right when Hermione suddenly began speaking all at once.

"Harry James Potter! How could you do something like that and just sit there calmly? I expected better from you."

Harry just rolled his eyes at the twins who had started sniggering the moment Hermione began speaking and looked at Hermione and said, "Hermione, just because you are not prepared to do something doesn't give you the right to scold your friends who are more than happy to do it. It's their choice as to how they want to live life" and with that he turned from his best friend who he had left speechless and blushing beet red, to Sirius and asked, "So what are you lot doing to stop Voldemort?"

It never seized to amaze Harry as to how these people wanted to fight Voldemort but were even scared to say his name properly and instead settled for using hyphenated monikers. For the first time Harry genuinely felt sorry for Dumbledore. The man had no option but to work with these people who even refused to say the name of the enemy they were supposedly fighting.

Mrs. Weasley in a vain attempt to stop Harry from finding out the details about the order's business had loudly proclaimed that it was time for dinner and forced everyone to start eating. But Harry wasn't about to let the matter slide like that. So while he did eat like Mrs. Weasley had intended, he did however made it a point to keep staring at Sirius relentlessly until the man caved and looked up at him. From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Mrs. Weasley giving Sirius the evil eye. Harry had no doubt that this too was Dumbledore's idea and frankly Harry was really starting to get frustrated with the headmaster for keeping one thing after another from him.

But before Sirius could so much as say a word, Mrs. Weasley tried to send them all up in the pretext having a busy day tomorrow but Sirius came to Harry's aid and said that if anyone had the right to know about Voldemort, it was Harry. And when she tried to send her children and Hermione back to their beds, Fred and George stood their ground saying that they were off age adults whereas Ron and Hermione got to be there because everyone knew that Harry would anyway tell them everything. At last when Mrs. Weasley tried to forcefully make Ginny go to her bedroom, Harry just about lost it and said that if she wanted to protect her children then maybe her entire family should stay out of the war because if she and her husband along with their two elder sons were taking active part in the war then the rest of her children deserved to at least know what it was that the family was facing.

This statement completely threw her off guard. So she just took to sulking in a corner while Sirius was looking at him with a hint of approval. So when Harry gestured to Sirius to start speaking, he was given a short vague report about what the Order was doing with respect to Voldemort and a particular weapon he was after which Harry was sure was the prophecy which again prompted Mrs. Weasley to start shouting at Sirius about telling Harry too much when he was just a boy whereas Sirius yelled that since he was Harry's godfather, he had the right to decide how much Harry was told.

One thing led to another which in the end led to Remus intervening so as to stop a full blown fight between Mrs. Weasley and Sirius but not before Mrs. Weasley had made a statement saying that if they were planning to tell Harry anything more, then they might as well induct him into the order which led to loud exclamations from Fred and George about them being off age and yet not being allowed to join the order.

Finally having heard enough shouting, Harry decided to end it and whisteled loudly, making everyone look at him as if he had grown a second head. Harry just leaned back in his chair and looked at Remus and said, "I'm sorry Remus but I have no intention of joining your merry band of Order members."

This confused everyone as they were all expecting Harry to fight vehemently to be allowed to be a part of the order owing to his history with Voldemort. Harry seeing their confusion decided to elaborate further and said, "I mean why would I want to join a group that is as good as ineffective?"

This led to loud exclamations from everyone who was seated at the table about how Harry could say something. Once they had stopped speaking, Harry just looked at Remus and said, "You do know what this weapon is you are guarding right?" when Remus nodded he continued, "Then you should know that the only ones who are capable of so much as touching it are the ones about whom it is. In this case that would be me and Voldemort."

When he saw each and every Order member's jaw dropping and both Remus and Sirius starting to sputter he put up a hand to forestall their questions and tapped his scar and said, "My personal Spy cam remember?" when Sirius and his best friends nodded in understanding Harry continued, "So then why are you wasting your resources when it is already safe?"

Seeing that his audience had lost him, Harry turned to Bill and said, "Imagine if you were Voldemort," he chose to ignore the flinches in the room and continued, "Why would you want to give up your advantage of the government denying your existence? In other words the ministry is as good as giving you a free pass to do all that you need to prepare for a war as long as you lay low. The only thing Voldemort could do to change that is to either come out in the open and attack or walk into the ministry to personally take that weapon. Now whatever else he is, Voldemort is not stupid, that I assure you."

At this explanation everyone in the room nodded in understanding but it was Mr. Weasley who put forth what he and the rest of the Order members believed to be their logical and practical problems.

"But Harry we can't do much. Between Fudge still denying Voldemort's return, you and Dumbledore being discredited, Sirius being an escaped convict, Remus being a Werewolf and rest of us being ministry employees, there's not a lot we could do apart from what we are already doing."

Harry knew that he had to phrase his next statement carefully or else it would sound very condescending.

"Mr. Weasley no offence, but you really aren't doing much. Just think about it. When Remus and everyone else came to pick me up, I had a girl over at my place and I told you myself that I have had similar experiences before in the summer. Did you know that I visited Diagon Alley twice?"

When everyone looked at him shocked, Harry continued, "Now the only reason I was able to slip through was because your patrol pattern was fairly regular. Plus once Dung took over, it was fairly easy for me to slip past him." At this everyone in the room looked at Mundungus who was still sleeping in the corner oblivious to all the commotion. The look on Mrs. Weasley's face clearly said that if she were allowed then she would tear Mundungus into pieces with her bare hands.

When nobody seemed to say anything Harry continued, "My best friends here seemed to place more importance to what the headmaster told them rather than what they knew I needed. I appreciate his intention to protect me from all this, I really do. But it's not his decision to make. At the end of the day he is just my headmaster, not my family."

"That brings me to what I wanted to tell you all next. While you all were doing whatever it was that you did, I wasn't wallowing in self pity and worrying over what Voldemort might be up to." When every single person in the kitchen except Dung raised an eyebrow at him, Harry rolled his eyes and said, "I have been practicing magic." At this almost as one, everyone started shouting forcing Harry to bang his fists on the table in order to restore quiet. When he had everyone's full attention he began speaking again.

"The first day after I got back, I was feeling really frustrated because I knew no matter how much I tried, I couldn't do anything. Not even perform magic because I was sure that if I performed magic one more time at Privet Drive then I would be expelled. So I willingly asked my uncle for any chore that he had. When he asked me to paint the garage, I started doing so at once. But by the end of the day even that couldn't stop my frustration and plus I was also feeling exhausted. So when I needed to walk all the way to the other end of the garage just pick up a new jar of paint, I just looked at it and wished that if only there was a way for that paint jar to come flying to me without me doing anything more than extending my hand in that direction."

"And guess what? The next thing I know, the paint jar came flying into my hands. I was terrified. It had been nothing more than a lazy whim. I wasn't actually expecting it to happen. But above all I knew that it was me who had somehow summoned that jar of paint."

"I waited anxiously for the letter from the ministry to arrive stating that I have been expelled. But after half an hour when nothing happened, I tried to summon something else. I know it was crazy and risky but I had to find out. When after two successful attempts of levitating and summoning things wandlessly, I still hadn't gotten any letters. I knew I had hit the jackpot."

Now that Harry had started speaking, he couldn't believe how true the story sounded. He himself believed it completely. So not wanting to give his audience a chance to question him, he continued.

"So next morning, I sent Hedwig over to Flourish and Blotts with a few galleons that I had with me and a letter asking them to send me any books they had on Wandless magic. Hedwig returned later that evening with two books and the spare money. So for the next two days I did nothing but read those books and then after that started practicing all the spells that I could from the last four years, which was nothing but repeating what I learned in Charms and Transfiguration."

"But I also knew that I needed to go to Diagon Alley if I wanted to do just more than this. So I started keeping an eye on the pattern of people guarding my house and soon came to the conclusion that the way to do so would be to leave when Dung was patrolling. Imagine my surprise when a couple of days later instead of Tonks, it's Dung who turned up for the morning shift. I immediately went to my Aunt and told her that I would be going out to buy some school related things and that I would be back by dinner. I then went back to my room, took out my invisibility cloak and silenced my feet and got out when my Aunt had opened the front door to speak to someone so as to avoid any suspicion."

"I walked down to a bus stop few blocks from my relatives' house and then took off the invisibility cloak and got on a muggle bus that would drop me very near to the Leaky Cauldron. Once I got down there, I got into a deserted alley and got under my invisibility cloak again. I then walked over to the Leaky Cauldron and waited for someone to open the pub's door. When the door opened, I quickly slipped to the back end where luckily an old witch had just opened the archway to Diagon Alley. I silently thanked my stars and slipped out right after her."

"The first thing I did was to go to Gringotts where to my dismay I found out that along with my Trust vault, I had another vault which belonged to my family and that I would be allowed to access the money in it only after I came off age. So I asked the goblins if I could visit my family vault and take anything from it, for which I was told that I was allowed to take out everything except the money and jewelry and family heirlooms that were of precious nature."

"So after I made a withdrawal from my vault in order to buy myself some new clothes, I was taken to my family vault. It was there that I found my next surprise."

"Amongst other things, there was this trunk" and here he looked at Remus and continued, "That belonged to my grandmother Dorea Potter. The trunk in all its essence was a fully furnished portable apartment with three bedrooms complete with a dueling and training room, a library and a fully functional kitchen. But its best feature was that it allowed an underage witch or wizard to practice magic on the inside without getting tracked by the ministry. If that wasn't enough, the trunk had another feature which could be turned on with a simple spell. On activation, this feature allowed the user of the trunk to manipulate time to go slower according to his or her choice inside the trunk."

At this he turned and looked at every single one of them in the eye and said, "This meant that I was allowed to practice magic without getting tracked by the ministry while making sure that I got years to practice magic and learn ahead. So I did the most sensible thing. I took every single book in the vault and put them all into the trunk and then closed it and activated the resizing feature of the trunk and slipped it into my pocket."

"With that done, I walked out of the bank while under the invisibility cloak and walked over to a magical optometrist from whom I bought a pair of clear contact lenses which were charmed to be auto corrective. But not before I made him take an Unbreakable Vow in order to keep my visit a secret. I then walked over to Madam Malkins' and did some shopping and walked out with a similar vow."

"After that I went to muggle London, where I went to a store called Harrods and bought myself some new clothes and walked out with a new wardrobe. But not before I asked the really hot sales girl out on a date for the following Saturday night. I then made my way back home without any incident or detection."

"Once I got back home, I spent the rest of the night and the following few days sorting out the library in my trunk. Once I did that I first learned a few basic distraction charms that kept my relatives from barging into my room and put them on my bedroom door using my Wandless ability."

"After a couple of days, I walked over to my aunt and asked her very politely that when she went out to get the groceries if she would bring me the items on the list that I handed over to her along with the required money. But my relatives being who they were decided to put their foot in their mouth and started acting like the idiots they really are. So I had to convince them using a little magic after which they were very cooperative."

"What followed was years of studying and practicing magic without any restrictions. For the one month on the outside, I spent five years inside. I learned almost the entire seven years of Hogwarts curriculum and a bit more that was there from all the books and journals that I had taken from my family vault. I even learned Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and found out that I had a clear affinity for spell crafting."

"I made one more trip to Diagon Alley a few days ago where I got a few rare trinkets like a Pensieve and a black Onyx ward neutralizer that also doubled up as a magic conductor. Well then as for the rest, I already told you that I went out on several dates with a lot of muggle girls."

With that said he leaned back in his chair and said, "Now if an underage wizard could find a way to do all that without any of you being any wiser, tell me why a group of grown up wizards and witches can't do more to prove Voldemort's return."

All the while he was talking, not one person had moved from their space. When he had finished talking he turned and noticed the different expression of everyone's face. Sirius, Remus, Mr. Weasley and Bill were looking at him with unbridled joy and pride. Mrs. Weasley was looking as if she couldn't decide whether to scold him for taking such risks or praise him for his thoughtfulness with respect to learning so much. Fred and George were looking at him with an emotionless face that said, 'we know what you just told all these gullible ones was absolute bull shit but we'll let it go as long as you give us the real story'.

Tonks was looking at him impressed as if she couldn't think of a fifteen year old who could act so responsible whereas Ron was looking at him with plain awe on his face while Ginny was just beaming up at him as if she had never once doubted him. But it was the expression on Hermione's face that made throw back his head and laugh. His best friend was looking at him with open jealousy and hostility for not having shared this bit with her before. Harry for his part just wiggled his eyebrows and turned back to Sirius and said, "And that brings me right back to my original point."

"I have no intention of joining a group which is as good as inactive." When Sirius was about to say something, he just raised his hand and said, "Hear me out first and then tell me I'm wrong." When Sirius nodded with a frown, Harry began telling them his logic.

"Now you all know that Voldemort is not going to make it easy for you to prove that he's returned right?" as Sirius nodded Harry continued.

"You also remember that I witnessed the entire thing that night in the graveyard right?" when everyone nodded he carried on.

"Now that night I told the headmaster all that happened including the names of all the Death Eaters who were there. What I don't understand is instead of trying to work around Voldemort's plans, why don't you work out a plan to ambush one of those Death Eaters or get them arrested?" He turned to Sirius and Remus and said, "I mean you two are two of the most celebrated pranksters in the history of Hogwarts. Don't tell me you can't come up with a plan to capture one of them off guard. You have two Aurors in your group. Set up a trap or an ambush and when you one of them where you need, use Kingsley or Tonks to take them into official custody."

"I can vouch without even knowing that the every single Death Eater in the graveyard got out claiming to be under the imperious curse. So it is well known that Fudge would try to sweep it all under the rug. Get in touch with Madam Bones and ask her to assist the Order indirectly by telling her the real situation. I'm sure she would be more than happy to see Lucius Malfoy get thrown into Azkaban. Once you have her on your side, ask Dumbledore to pull some strings and use whatever influence he has to call a Tribunal or a Wizengamot Session."

"Once there, Madam Bones can push for questioning under Veritaserum in order to avoid any miscarriage of justice. As soon as the identity clearance is done and a few basic questions are out of the way, make Madam Bones slip in a question first about whether or not that person took the Dark Mark willingly to become a Death Eater. The entire session would be on its feet yelling for asking such an inappropriate question. But the damage was already done since the person being questioned is under the effects of the truth serum, he will respond."

"Once he accepts that he is a Death Eater, Madam Bones can pull her ace out and ask him whether or not Voldemort has returned, which again will create a ruckus but will end similarly with the answer being a loud yes. What more do you need. A Death Eater under Veritaserum just gave you a full confession about his culpability and Voldemort's return in front of every influential member of the British ministry. What's more is that if that said Death Eater is Lucius Malfoy, you might just be able to remove Fudge from his office as Minister of Magic if you proved that Malfoy has been bribing Fudge for years to make him overlook his various nefarious crimes."

Harry just took a deep breath once he had finished putting forth his idea and said, "If a fifteen year old with no political experience or knowledge of law can come up with that plan after you told him what you have been up to for the last one month which is basically nothing. Please tell me why that said fifteen year who has faced Voldemort more times than everyone else in this room combined and lived, should even think about joining the Order? I don't mean to sound arrogant or something. I just want you all to think about how you want this war to pan out. Whether you want a war in which you know the variables involved or a war in which you are left trying to cover up all the blind spots."

For the first time that evening, Harry saw the members of the Order realize how flawed their whole plan of action had been. Sirius, Remus and Mr. Weasley for their part looked ashamed that they hadn't thought of something like this. Bill and Tonks looked like they were seriously thinking whether their decision to join the order had been right or wrong. Mrs. Weasley was looking like she wanted to take Harry and lock him up in a safe room to keep him away from all of this.

It was Remus who first broke the silence and said, "Harry please tell me you don't have any other crazy plan inside that head of yours which involves you confronting Voldemort and his Death Eaters all alone."

Harry knew that the fear that was visible on every single face on hearing Remus's question was due to their love and affection for him and it warmed his heart to see that he had such a large group of people looking out for him. So Harry decided to alienate their fears and said, "No Remus. I already had my yearly jaunt with Voldemort this past June. I don't have any plans of meeting him this year again."

He then decided to take care of another thing he needed to continue his plans and looked at Sirius and asked, "Sirius, I know this is the Order's headquarters. But can I have a room of my own? I had a few things that I wanted to work on."

But to his surprise it was Mrs. Weasley who replied.

"Harry dear, it's not about the lack of rooms. It's more about their condition. They are all very dirty. That was why we put you up with Ron."

Harry looked at her incredulously before he threw back his head and laughed. When everyone looked at him like he was crazy, he stopped laughing and said, "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for" and turning to Hermione he said, "So you really were telling the truth when you mentioned cleaning?"

Hermione looked at him scandalized and answered indignantly.

"Of course I was telling you the truth. How can you even think otherwise?"

Harry just put his hands up in a placating manner and said, "Hey I'm sorry. I just thought that" when Hermione just huffed, he continued.

"Remember I said that I had an affinity for spell crafting?" when everyone nodded, he said, "Let me show you a spell that I created that would be perfect in this case."

He then turned to Sirius and asked, "Sirius, this is your house right?" Sirius nodded with an expression that clearly said he wished it was otherwise, so Harry continued.

"And you are of course my godfather," at this Sirius nodded happily and Harry carried on, "So do I have your permission to perform magic in this house for the duration of my stay?" And as he had hoped every adult's expression became guarded; specifically Mr. & Mrs. Weasley as they were sure that if Harry was given permission by Sirius then they'll have to do the same. But before anyone could say anything, Hermione spoke out.

"Don't be ridiculous Harry. You are still underage. You can't perform magic outside of school."

Harry looked at Hermione like she had lost her mind and then as if he was explaining to a kid, said, "Hermione, for someone who is supposedly the smartest witch of her age, sometimes you are incredibly thick." When Hermione looked outraged, he carried on.

"Think about it Hermione. The Order is as of now a group that is completely against the minister's stand. Yet all their meetings in this kitchen are done under a variety of privacy charms like the Imperturbable charm that Mrs. Weasley put on the kitchen's door. Not to forget the fact that this house is apparently owned by Sirius who happens to be an escaped mass murderer on the run. All this is possible because the house is currently under the Fidelius charm in which the location's address is hidden as the secret inside a person's soul. Without being directly informed about the place's existence and whereabouts by the secret keeper himself, you might stand right in front of it yet you will never see it."

"Do you really think such a bit of magic will not be able to prevent the ministry from tracking underage magic? That is not even taking into account that after Sirius who happens to be my godfather and the owner of this house has given me the permission to perform magic I'm more than free to do so without getting reprimanded by the ministry, so long as I don't cast any unforgivables."

For the second time that day he had left Hermione Granger speechless. The first thing that came out of Hermione's mouth once she managed to overcome her shock was, "But that is so unfair. I mean what about us muggleborns? We'll never get to perform magic that way."

Harry nodded sadly and said, "I know Hermione, I know. The problem is that since for all muggleborns, the de facto magical guardian is the headmaster, you can't really blame him for not telling the students this. It would be the same for me, as what with my parents being murdered and Sirius being wrongly sentenced, my magical guardianship was passed on to Professor Dumbledore. It's just that magic recognizes that Sirius being my godfather has a greater say in my life than the headmaster himself. So if Sirius gives me the permission, then I can perform magic."

He then turned to Sirius and asked, "So do you give me the permission or not?" when Sirius took a deep breath dramatically and said, "Alright pup. I give you my permission to perform magic in this house as long as you stay here and whenever you stay here. Now let's see what you've got."

Harry just stood up and flicked his right wrist making his Holly and Phoenix feather wand come into his hand and then he put the wand tip to the floor and muttered, "Abstergo" and waited. At first nothing happened and then slowly a breeze began to form around him which then began spreading in all directions which caused the occupants of the kitchen to go wide eyed. A minute later the breeze died down and Harry stood up.

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place had just been transformed completely like it was a brand new house, instead of an old dark decrepit home. Every nook and corner, every wall, every surface was looking brand new. Even the paint job looked like it was newly done while anything that was torn or broken was fixed automatically.

"What the hell did you do?" was the first question that came out of Sirius's mouth. Everyone else was just staring around the room in sheer wonder. Harry just chuckled and said, "It was a spell I created in order to help me fix the stuff that I had destroyed while training." Then with a cheeky grin he added, "Now that the house is clean, can I have my own room?"

When Sirius dumbly nodded, Harry sat down again and said, "Cool! I'll pick one myself. Now the next thing, I'll be going into muggle London tomorrow because I need to buy some stuff for my project." When Remus opened his mouth to speak, Harry raised a finger forestalling him and said, "Don't worry! I'll be disguising myself well and―" he looked at Fred and George and said, "I want you two to come with me as well. If you are willing to that is."

When Remus, Sirius and the twins nodded Harry stood up and said, "Excellent! Now if you guys don't mind, I'll go and select a room for myself and hit the bed. I'm really tired after the activity earlier in the day and all this talking just now" with that Harry started walking toward the kitchen door but upon reaching it, he turned back toward the kitchen table and said, "Sirius, Remus" when the said men looked at him, he continued with a cheeky grin on his face, "Please allow me to introduce to you, Silverfang" and without waiting he transformed into his Animagus form of a Snow Leopard and trotted over to Sirius and Remus and bumped their legs with his head before he transformed back into his human self and walked out of the kitchen without looking back while both Sirius and Remus were staring off into the space where the Snow Leopard had been a moment before as if in a trance before Sirius threw his head back and laughed before saying, "That cheeky bugger purposefully held back from showing us that till the end didn't he?", while Remus nodded with a fond smile on his face.

It took him about fifteen minutes to find a room on the first floor which was the last one on the right and transfigure it to his requirements and then resize his trunk and put out Hedwig's cage and take out his necessary things. He also made sure to open the window for Hedwig to come in before he went to the washroom to get freshened up.

Back in the kitchen, everyone was trying to come to terms with a Harry Potter who was knowledgeable, powerful and yet level headed. Hermione was both happy that her friend had decided to be so decisive and responsible and sad that he hadn't shared this bit about being able to learn and practice with her till today.

Ron was having a hard time putting things together. Until now he had to put up with his best friend who along with being famous was also a good Quidditch player. Whereas he had just found out that his best friend was now way ahead of him in terms of knowledge too. He knew that no matter what Harry would never treat him differently but yet a part of him wondered if Harry would still consider him an equal and hang out with him after all that had happened this summer.

For Ginny her dream suddenly seemed that much more difficult. For someone who had grown up listening to the stories of the boy who lived, it was like a dream come true when she found out that Harry Potter was her brother's best friend. Then in her first year after all that fiasco with the diary Harry had in the end slain the Basilisk and saved her from the chamber. All this had only made Harry that much more attractive in her eyes and many times better than what he was in the stories she had heard. But now with all this new found knowledge along with his improved good looks, experience with girls and his overall fame, Ginny realized one thing very clearly, that if she wanted to win Harry's heart, she had her job pretty cut out.

As for Mr. & Mrs. Weasley, they had always considered Harry as one of their own, so for them seeing Harry like this was to see another of their child grow up to become a good individual. Their only worry being that Harry had to do so when he was just fifteen. A few more years and they would have been happy to see a Harry Potter, all grown up like this.

Bill having only known Harry since last summer was happy with the way he had changed. In Bill's view if there was anyone who deserved a chance to live a happy life then it was Harry. He had been through too much in his life already. Tonks who didn't really know much about Harry apart from what she'd heard was happy to find someone who was just like her, living life to the fullest yet standing tall in the face of trouble.

For Sirius and Remus, it was like their worst nightmare had come to life. The son of their best friend was willingly giving up his childhood just so he could go up against a deranged Dark Lord was not something they wanted to willingly accept. Yet what choice did they have? This was a war and they both knew that if Voldemort wanted to get to Harry, then he would find a way to do so. Not a moment had gone by since that accursed Halloween night when Sirius hadn't wished to go back in time and fix his mistakes. Alas he knew what was done was done and that all he could do now was to stand by his godson and give him all the support he needed.

Remus on the other hand was for the nth time cursing his fate for being a Werewolf. If it hadn't been for that then he could have easily taken care of Harry and made sure he had a normal childhood. Instead he had to stay away and accept Dumbledore's assurance of Harry being fine when in reality he really hadn't been. All of this was just because that damn Fenrir Greyback had bitten him and turned him into a Werewolf when he was just a child. But not anymore, now he would stand shoulder to shoulder with Harry or in fact stand in front of him and protect him from danger in the best way he can. Even if that meant that he had to give up his life. He looked up at his best friend and saw a similar resolve in his eyes and nodded. Yes, they were not going to let James and Lilly's sacrifice go to waste. They were prepared to protect Harry with their lives.

Fred and George for their part didn't really bother thinking too much because they knew that what Harry had told everyone was not in fact the truth. And that was what gave them a pause. If what they had heard which apparently was quite a bit, was nothing more than a well thought out lie. How different and devastating was the reality? They knew what they had to do and they also knew that Harry would tell them about what had actually happened. So with a synchronized muttering of 'Good night', the two of them walked out of the kitchen with a single goal in mind. That was to go and talk to their financial backer and brother in all but blood and find out what he had been up to in the past few weeks.

Soon after, one by one, everyone in the kitchen made their way to their respective rooms. But they all had one question they wanted to find the answer to. How different was this new Harry and what all other things was he hiding from them?

A/N: As always thank you for the wonderful responses. You all really know how to motivate an author.

And here's the new update that I promised to you the day before about.

Like I say every other time, let me know your thoughts and ideas via reviews or PMs.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX – I SPEND MY SUMMER PLAYING WITH SOME FANCY TOYS

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

As he heard the twins laughing over some joke, Harry looked back upon everything that had transpired after he walked out of the kitchen last night.

Finding a room suitable to his liking had been a simple enough affair. Even the little transfiguration with respect to changing the color and the style of the décor of the room had taken few minutes at most. Whatever stuff he wanted to add to his room according to his preferred taste, he had it in his apartment trunk which ensured that that part was easily taken care off as well. So after putting his things in the new room, the way he wanted, Harry had decided to freshen up, for he was sure that the twins wouldn't let him off without hearing the true version of events.

When he had come out of the washroom, he immediately noticed that Hedwig had indeed found her way to his room. Then as if stuck by a sudden thought, he quickly took a parchment and wrote something on it and tied it to Hedwig's leg after rolling it. He told her as to whom she needed to take the letter to and that if she wanted she could first hunt and then do the delivery. Hedwig merely bobbed her head in understanding and nipped his finger and took off.

It was just as Harry finished changing into something comfortable that the door of his room opened and in walked the Weasley twins. As soon as Harry saw them, he put a finger to his lips signaling for them to be quiet. When they both nodded in understanding, Harry picked up his Holy and Phoenix Feather wand from the bed side table, where he had put both the wand and the holster and quickly cast a series of privacy charms that would bar even Dumbledore from listening in on their conversation.

This was another habit that Sid had drilled into Harry. Even though he had helped Harry procure the untraceable wand, Sid made sure that Harry understood that the only time he was supposed to have the untraceable wand on him was when he was out in the muggle world alone. Though he was not against Harry keeping it with him while he was out in the wizarding world, he did however, ask Harry to not keep the untraceable wand with him while being in the company of his friends. It was to make sure that Harry didn't unknowingly end up exposing or divulging the fact that he had a second wand on him.

As according to Sid, the only way to keep his friends from noticing the extra wand would be to keep it in the holster which would activate the fidelius' magic. But to do so, Harry would have to keep wearing the holster all the time. So Sid had asked Harry to keep the wand in its holster and put them both in the trunk when he was not going out somewhere. And true to his promise to Sid, the moment he had set up his new room, Harry had put his untraceable wand along with the holster into the small password protected safe in his trunk and put his Holly and Phoenix Feather wand and the other holster on his bed side table.

Once he was satisfied with the privacy charms that he had put up, he gestured the twins to get comfortable and he himself sat down on one of the bean bags in the room. As soon as all three of them were comfortably seated, the twins looked at Harry and began.

"So how goes the adventurous summer Harrikins?" began Fred.

"For your little story really did lack in all the finer points of a regular Harry Potter summer." finished George.

"Now how about you tell us―"

"The uncensored adrenaline filled version―"

"Instead of the censored, sensitive ears―"

"Weak heart version." Said the two in synchronized twin-speak.

And so Harry did.

He started from his entering the bedroom and finding Sid waiting there to the subsequent conversation that followed. He also told them about Sid offering to train him and him taking up Sid on his offer. He then told them about him going over to Sid's place and his subsequent discovery at Gringotts along with his training and education oriented discussion with Sid.

He then told them about Sid's plan for his training and their journey and training in the other dimension and all their other not so educational pursuits there, knowing that the twins would be particularly interested in this bit of his experience.

He also told them about his affinity toward Wandless magic, Occlumency and Elemental Magic. He even gave them a small demonstration except for summoning the lightning bolt part which according to the twins was way cooler than Dumbledore's twinkling eyes.

He then told them about how he learned everything up to the level of mastery in core wand subjects and his proficiency in hand to hand combat and dueling along with his enhanced magical and physical endurance. He also told them about the ritual with the Vessel of Essence and how he had gained years of experience in a matter of half an hour.

He then told them about their return to this dimension, his dreams regarding the long black corridor and their subsequent discovery about the prophecy and their journey to the Department of Mysteries to find out its contents. He also went ahead and told them the wording of prophecy. He then told them about his irritation and anger over Ron and Hermione and Sirius over keeping information from him and mixed opinion about the headmaster and finally losing the temper on his birthday over the continued lack of any valid information from his friends and also all the gifts that Sid had given him for his birthday

He then told them about the Dementors incident and his return to the Dursleys, his conversation with Mrs. Figg, his threatening of the Dursleys and his subsequent arrival at Grimmauld place. The only thing he didn't tell them was the bit about the untraceable wand and his ability to cast with both wands simultaneously just like he had promised Sid. He also made sure to tell them all about Sid and the way he had become like an elder brother to him.

Once he had finished talking, it was Fred who began by saying, "You do know that if this goes public, Dumbledore would have an absolute fit while Mum will likely go completely mental―"

"Not to mention Hermione would literally bite your head off, right?" finished George.

When Harry nodded, the twins looked at each other and nodded and then got down on their knees before Harry and bowed their heads and said in unison, "Bless us, oh, the great son of Prongs. For we humble beings would like to be blessed with your intelligence and ability to prank the gullible masses."

Harry couldn't help himself and burst out laughing. Once he had gotten himself under control, he looked at them to see that the two of them had gotten back in their seats and said, "Seriously guys! Thanks a lot. I don't know what I would have done if you had gotten all serious and emotional."

The twins nodded in understanding before George began, "We understand Harry. And we truly are touched with the amount of trust you've shown by sharing the reality of your summer with us."

"We promise you, that we won't let you down" finished George.

Harry looked at them both and thought about how best to ask them what he wanted to. But then he remembered who they were and decided that being upfront and honest would be the best way, so asked, "Guys! I know that you will guard my secrets no matter what. But I still want you both to learn Occlumency. It is the art of securing one's mind from external probing. If you want, I can teach that to both of you."

The twins looked at him with a bemused expression before they began.

"My dear little Harrikins―"

"Do you really think―"

"We would be able to pull off all those pranks―"

"Without knowing how to shield our thoughts―"

"And our expressions―"

"From betraying us?" and finished with an expression of amused disbelief on their faces.

Harry put up his hands in surrender and told them that he just wanted to be careful for which the twins assured him that they were well experienced in Occlumency but anyway asked him to go ahead and test their shields so that Harry could put his mind at peace.

So for the next few minutes Harry tried all he could to breach both their Occlumency shields one after the other and when after multiple attempts on both of them, he couldn't breach their shields even once, Harry pronounced that he was more than happy with their shields.

Finally as he started feeling tired owing to his long day and his recent attempt to breach the twins' Occlumency shields, Harry told them both that he really wanted to hit the bed, a sentiment which the twins reciprocated. So soon after confirming their plan for the next day, the twins left Harry's room to go to their room, allowing Harry to sink into a blissful sleep where for a change he did not end up visiting the long black corridor that night.

Next morning while he was getting ready for the day, Harry made it a point to dress like a muggle teenager since the majority of his day would be spent in muggle London. He wore a white t-shirt with a blue print and a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and paired it up with blue jeans and finished the look with navy blue canvas trainers. He did however wear the wand holsters in both his arms and practice having both his wands in his hands at a moment's notice, just to be sure and also wore the wrist watch that Sid had gifted him which also could be used as a communication device or an emergency Portkey.

Once he was sure that he was ready, he checked his pouch of money to see how much he had only to realize that he apparently needed to visit Gringotts in order to make a withdrawal. So he shrunk his money pouch and took his vault key and slipped both of them into his jeans pocket. He also slipped his wallet with muggle money into the back pocket of his jeans. But just as he was making his way out, he suddenly remembered something and walked over to his wardrobe closet and opened it and took out the trunk which Sid had given him. He then shrunk it and put that too into his jeans pocket before making his way down to the kitchen.

It was as he was about to enter the kitchen that Harry saw an old house-elf dressed in nothing but an old dirty loin cloth that was wrapped around its middle, walking out. When it noticed him, it at looked him with hate filled bloodshot watery gray eyes and muttered furiously under its breath before walking away.

Not knowing how to react over the house-elf's strange behavior, Harry walked into the kitchen with a frown on his face. What he did not know was that which was strange and new to him, was somewhat of a regular occurrence for the rest of the house's occupants. So nobody was overly worried about the frown on his face as they had all seen the house-elf notice Harry on its way out.

When he finally did notice the occupants of the kitchen he realized that he was apparently the last one to come down. So he just walked over to the empty seat in between the twins and sat down. He also noted that both of them were dressed in simple muggle attire of shirt, sweater and jeans. As soon as he sat down, Mrs. Weasley put a plate of scrambled eggs and toasts in front of him. He did however request her for a cup of coffee instead of the cup of tea that she gave him. While he ate his breakfast, he made general conversation with everyone at the table but refrained from revealing anything about his plans saying it was a surprise. He also found out that Mr. Weasley, Bill and Tonks had all left early that morning and would only be back around dinner time.

At last when he and the twins had finished eating, he pulled the twins aside and quickly cast some glamour charms on both of them using his regular wand, taking specific care to make them look different from one another. Once he was satisfied with his handiwork, he cast the glamour charms on himself. He then conjured a hand mirror and showed it to the twins so that they could check out as to how they looked and then he checked himself out to make sure he was sufficiently disguised. When he was happy with the result, he flicked his wand once more making the hand mirror vanish before putting the wand back into the holster.

All the while Harry was busy working on his and the twins' disguises, the rest of the occupants of the kitchen watched him with expressions varying from awe to concern to curiosity to childish jealousy to pride over his ability to cast the glamour charms. When he and the twins were about to take their leave, Remus and Sirius asked them to have fun but yet to be cautious whereas both Hermione and Molly tried to yet again convince him that it was a bad idea for him to go outside considering Voldemort's return and ministry's stand. Ron and Ginny on the other hand looked at them with hopeful eyes as if nothing would please them more than joining him and the twins on their day out. So for his part Harry tried to placate everyone's fears and quickly dragged the twins out of the house before Mrs. Weasley could start her emotional blackmailing.

As soon as they came out Harry told the twins that they would be taking a muggle bus to Charing Cross road from the nearest bus stop stating that it was better to stay off the radar of both the ministry and Voldemort as much as possible. The twins nodded in understanding and agreed that it was a good idea. So they set off in search of a bus stand. They didn't have to wander too much because couple of blocks down from Grimmauld Place, they saw a bus stand. They had hardly waited for five minutes before they got a bus which luckily would directly take them to Charing Cross road. The journey lasted for about twenty minutes, during which Harry tried his best to answer all the questions that the twins kept asking him about everything that fascinated them, which apparently was almost everything. By the time they reached Charing Cross, Harry was seriously beginning to doubt whether it was a good idea to bring the twins to muggle London.

When they reached the Leaky Cauldron, Harry allowed Fred to open the archway since both the twins were off age. The three made their way straight to the bank during which the twins told Harry that they would soon start scouting for a place for the shop and that he was welcome to join them. Once they entered the bank, Harry asked the twins to wait in the lobby so that only one had to remove their glamour and prove their identity. When they agreed, he then joined the shortest line and upon reaching the teller Harry told him that he wanted to make a withdrawal but that for the purpose of anonymity he would like to keep his disguise and that he would be willing to take a blood verification test to prove his identity.

The teller looked at him skeptically but anyway provided him with the required items since a customer's anonymity and privacy was the bank's top priority. When the teller was satisfied with Harry's identity, he called forth a goblin to take Harry to his vault. A quick trip to the vault and a few minutes at the exchange counter later Harry walked out of the bank with the twins with enough muggle money for a day of luxury shopping in muggle London and more than enough gold in his pocket to fund two magical children's seven years of Hogwarts education.

It was only once they walked out of the Leaky Cauldron and joined the muggle world did Harry tell the twins about his real plan for the day. Apparently while they were in the other dimension, they had made it a point to keep an eye on various advancements in muggle technology. So when they were at the end of their stay there, Harry had asked Sid to buy him a few stuffs like a computer, a laptop, Wi-Fi routers, external hard-disks, LCD TV, mobile phones, DVD player, VCR, iPod, Nintendo GameCube, Playstation2, Xbox which were all the latest advancements of that dimensions along with a collection of tapes, DVDs and CPUs of some of the best films, games and music of that dimension so that Harry could bring them back to their timeline and configure them in order for them to perform in a magical household or environment.

Sid had been more than glad to buy whatever Harry wanted as their agent had assured them that they would be making a large profit on the sale of their house but Harry had denied him outright stating that the only reason he was asking Sid to buy these stuff was because he doesn't have access to his Gringotts vault and that when they got back, he would be reimbursing Sid in full. Sid had tried to convince him that it was unnecessary but Harry had literally put his foot down on this matter saying Sid should buy those stuff only if he agreed to Harry's stipulation.

So now that Harry had access to his vault and was sure of his plan for the summer, he wanted to go over to Sid's place and collect all those stuff. The twins were super excited about meeting the man who had done so much for Harry and also because they were sure that they could learn a lot from someone like Sid.

Now that he had told the twins about their plan for the day, Harry decided to save time and hailed a taxi and asked the driver to drop them at the community market near Sid's place. When the twins asked him as to how he knew whether or not Sid would be at home, Harry told them that before they came to his room yesterday, he had sent a letter asking Sid whether it would be okay for the three of them to come to his place today and that Sid had sent a response saying that they were more than welcome as he was at home working on a project.

When they reached their destination, Harry paid for the taxi and led them over to Sid's place. He didn't bother telling them about the fidelius since he had already done that the previous night. Upon reaching Sid's place, Harry asked the twins to wait while he walked over to Sid's front door and rang the bell. In a few moments, Sid opened the door with a grin on his face before he gave Harry a hug that one would expect an elder brother to give his younger brother whom he was meeting after a long time. He then led Harry over to the twins and greeted them before giving them a parchment and asked them to read it. The reaction on the twins' faces was priceless and made both Harry and Sid chuckle.

The moment Sid had brought the other three inside the house he had dispelled their glamour charms. Soon the four of them were inside the house chatting up like old friends trading stories and experiences. Harry then reminded the other tree about the purpose of the visit so after Harry took out his trunk and resized it, the four of them started putting all the stuff that Harry had made Sid buy. It took them around thirty minutes in all to put it all properly after which Harry again shrunk the trunk put it into his pocket before he took out his money pouch which he had charmed to be bottomless and weightless and took out five tied pouches and handed them over to Sid who yet again tried to convince Harry that he really didn't have to pay him back but Harry simply shook his head and forced the money bags into his hands.

Once they were all settled again Sid had ordered Pizzas for all of them as he and Harry both wanted the twins to have a taste of the famed muggle food for doing otherwise would be a crime. They quartet spent the remainder of the time talking and laughing and having fun while watching the television which the twins were absolutely thrilled about and couldn't wait for Harry to finish the one he had. The twins had liked Pizza so much that they swore that they would have it at least once every week no matter what.

The sound of Fred and George twin-speaking brought Harry back to the present. Harry checked the time and realized that it was time for them to head back to Grimmauld Place, so after another round of farewells and reapplying the glamour charms, he led the twins to the community market and from there he hailed a taxi to take them to Grimmauld Place.

Harry was expecting a full blown inquiry from the occupants of the house the moment the three of them made their presence known. He was not disappointed. After dispelling their glamour the three of them following the sound of voices went down to the kitchen and found the very same group they had left that morning in the middle of a lively discussion.

The first to spot them from his vantage point was Ron who immediately alerted the rest about their presence with a loud, "About time mate!" which prompted Hermione to start her rapid fire round of nonstop questioning while Mrs. Weasley fussed over the three of them about probably not having had anything proper to eat since breakfast.

Harry just stood there and waited till they both got done with their respective way of acknowledging his presence. He saw that Ginny, Sirius and Remus were all snickering silently while the twins had taken a seat next to Ron and by the reddening of his ears the two were most likely pulling his leg about something.

When both Hermione and Mrs. Weasley had stopped speaking, he just stood there with a bemused expression on his face and then looking at Hermione, said, "I was just busy sourcing the required material for the project that I'm planning to work on from muggle London. And before you ask, no, I won't tell you what it is, as it will spoil the surprise."

Turning toward Mrs. Weasley, he then said, "Please don't worry too much Mrs. Weasley. I assure you that we did indeed have a healthy and filling lunch." He then looked at everyone and said, "I'll just go and put all the stuff that I bought in my room. I'll probably see you all for dinner." With that he walked out of the kitchen.

Once he was in his room, he quickly removed his untraceable wand and the holster along with his muggle wallet and the Gringotts money pouch and put them in the password protected safe of the trunk which he had resized and put at the foot of his bed.

After that he removed all of Sid's journals which were about making electronic items work in a magical environment and sat down and began to read. It took him about ninety minutes to get through the major points of the journal. By the time he finished the journal, he had also remembered something which he had been putting off on account of not wanting to alert Dumbledore or any order members who were working in the ministry. But now that he was here at the headquarters, he thought he could go ahead and do it.

So after putting the journal back from where he took it from, Harry took out a fresh parchment and penned a letter to one Griselda Marchbanks, who was the head of the Wizarding Examination Authority for Magical Britain. The crux of the letter was that he wanted to drop Divination starting his fifth year and take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and sit the OWLs for those two subjects along with the rest of his fifth year classmates as an independent student, who would not be taking the classes at Hogwarts but would be preparing through self study and private tutorship.

He also mentioned that he would be willing to sit on any tests that would enable him to prove his aptitude on both the subjects. He also in a roundabout fashion indicated that he didn't have the proper guidance when it came to the selection of electives in third year and hence this delayed change of heart. Satisfied with the structuring of his letter, he sent it off with Hedwig sincerely hoping that he would be given the required permission.

Harry then picked up his trunk from the foot of his bed and put it next to the foot of his wardrobe closet, making sure that it was sufficiently hidden by the huge antique study table. He then walked out of his room hoping to spend some time with his friends before dinner in order to make sure that they didn't feel left out. No matter what changed in his life, Ron and Hermione would always hold a special place in it as his best friends. Whether he shared his secret with them or not, they were his best friends; friends for whom he would happily give his life without a second thought.

As he expected, Ron and Hermione were the only occupants of Ron's room. Feeling a bit mischievous, he silently disillusioned himself and silenced his feet and went and sat next to Hermione who was talking very seriously with Ron about something. When he was properly seated, he in a very calm and controlled voice said, "You guys should close the door if what you're talking is of sensitive nature" and made Hermione shriek in surprise and fear while Ron fell out of his bed looking wide eyed and fearful.

Not able to control any further, he wandlessly cancelled the disillusionment and silencing charms and started roaring with laughter at the expression on his best friends' faces.

Hermione immediately smacked him on the back of his head glaring at him indignantly, while Ron simply exclaimed, "Bloody hell mate! Please don't ever do that."

After his laughter died down, Harry sat back properly wiping tears from his eyes and said, "Sorry! You two were so deep in conversation that it was too good an opportunity to pass up." At this Hermione merely glared at him while Ron looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

Rolling his eyes at the reaction of his friends, he said, "Anyway the reason I came to see you two was to tell you something." When both his friends sat up looking at him expectantly, he looked at Ron and said, "I'm sorry Ron, but I'm dropping Divination."

Ron immediately started spluttering incoherently while Hermione merely looked at him with narrowed eyes. So Harry just sighed and said, "I really have no intention of sitting through another year of Trelawney's classes while she predicts my death continuously."

Now frowning seriously Hermione asked, "So that means you would be taking one OWL less than Ron. Don't you think it is a little too less?"

Harry looked at her as if she had lost her mind and then suddenly as if he understood her question said, "Right! I didn't tell you the whole thing so I can understand your worry. While I said that I would be dropping Divination, I didn't tell you my main reason for doing so. As I told you yesterdays, one of the things I learned during my self-study was my affinity towards Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Since I'm more than well ahead in both the subjects, I just sent a letter to the head of Wizarding Examinations Authority, Madam Griselda Marchbanks, requesting her to allow me to drop Divination and take up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy OWLs along with the rest of our year as an independent student who would prepare through self-study and private tutorship."

It was Ron who first responded by saying, "But why now mate? I mean I agree that Trelawney is a complete fraud when it comes to teaching the subject but even you know that it's an easy enough subject. Why take the extra load?"

Hermione on the other hand was literally bouncing in her seat with barely contained excitement and the moment Ron stopped speaking, she glared at him and then looked at Harry happily and said, "Oh Harry! That's a wonderful idea. But why don't you want to take classes with us? I mean think about it. If you actually attend classes you will be able to review and check upon whatever it is that you learned through self study."

Harry for his part simply waited for them both to stop talking and then looking at Ron said, "Ron, as much as I agree with you, I really don't think I want to waste my time like that. Even you have to agree that with all the pressure of the OWLs, an extra free period will go a long way towards helping me relax. Also I'm pretty sure that Quidditch will be back on this year and hence I want to take every opportunity I can get for a free period."

He then looked at Hermione with a fond smile and said. "As much as I agree with your logic Hermione, I don't think I need it. I don't mean to sound cocky or over confident but I'm already leagues ahead of what the Hogwarts curriculum is bound to teach someone in both the subjects and hence the independent student status."

When both Ron and Hermione still looked skeptical, he passed a hand over his face tiredly and said, "Look you two, you know that I wanted to be an Auror right?" when both nodded he said, "But now with Voldemort's return you have to agree that one way or another, we'll all be in a war whether we like it or not." When the two of them again nodded glumly, he continued, "So after being in the middle of a war, I don't have any wish to take up a career where I am running after Dark Wizards and such for the rest of my life."

Both Ron and Hermione smiled a bit at this and Harry seeing them smiling, said in a cheerful manner, "Besides now I want to do something else." When both his friends looked at him expectantly he said, "I want to become a Spell Crafter and Enchanter."

At this both Ron and Hermione were gob smacked, so Harry simply said, "Remember when I said I had an affinity for spell-crafting?" when both nodded, he continued, "What I didn't tell you was that I was very interested with the concept of enchanting. When I went to Gringotts I found out that my grandmother was apparently too taken up with enchanting and actually started a company called 'The Curious Wizard Magitronix Inc.' along with my grandfather and was later on joined by my mother. Wizarding Wireless Network was in fact one of her brainchild."

Ron was sitting there with his jaw hanging open while Hermione said stutteringly, "You― Your grandmother was the one who developed the Wizarding Wireless Network?"

When Harry nodded she simply said, "WOW" whereas Ron nodded his head in agreement with her.

Harry smiled at them in understanding and said, "I know and that is why I want to take my family's legacy forward. I have the knowledge. I have the money required and I also do have a genuine interest in those fields and so that is what I want to become eventually."

Ron got up from his seat and clapped him on the back silently while Hermione looked at him with proud misty eyes and said, "Harry that's a wonderful thought. I'm sure you will be brilliant."

Harry for his part did not have any words and was yet again feeling guilty for keeping his secret from his friends. But he vowed that he would tell them at the first available opportunity when things work out.

The three passed the rest of the time till dinner generally catching up with each other while Hermione would from time to time question him about something or the other with respect to his self study period at the Dursleys.

The Dinner was spent in a very lively manner where everyone tried to get Harry and the twins to reveal as to what they bought in the muggle world but they simply refused to give up any information and instead settled for saying that they did not want to spoil the surprise for everyone.

Harry spent the next few days doing nothing but trying to figure out an even more efficient method than the one Sid had showed him for enchanting all the electronic items. Though he spent majority of the time locked up in his room, he made sure to join everyone in the house during mealtimes and catching up with them.

The first day he had spent locked up in his room, he was mercilessly questioned by everyone during dinner about what he was doing locked up in his room for which instead of telling them the truth he simply told them about his decision to drop Divination and take up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and that he had written to Madam Marchbanks requesting her permission.

This again led to another round of questioning and some offer of help by Remus, Sirius and Bill on the two subjects which Harry politely declined. What Harry didn't tell them was that Madam Marchbanks had apparently been very happy with his request and had promised to owl him with a date when he would be required to undergo a test at the ministry overseen by Madam Marchbanks along with Professor Vector and Professor Babbling for both the subjects which would determine whether or not he was capable of taking up the two subjects at the OWL level.

It took Harry four days or non-stop working around the various combination of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes to figure out the required enchanting combination to make the electronic items work in the magical environment without having to worry about any magnetic resistance and for them to function appropriately.

The first step was to get over the magnetic field intrusion which destroyed the electronic circuit. The second step was to power the electronic items both in a magical environment and a certain specific one in muggle environment without using electricity. The third step was to allow electronic items such as Television and Wi-Fi router to access the airwaves in order to broadcast channels and provide internet facility. The fourth step was to enchant the mobile phones to respond to one another using magical signatures much like how the normal mobile phones use sim cards in the muggle world.

The only step that gave Harry a pause was the one which allowed him to operate the electronic items in a muggle environment. He solved that specific one by allowing the ambient energy in the atmosphere to power the magic much like how an elemental uses his affinity to a particular element to perform magic.

By the end of sixth day Harry had managed to enchant every single item that he and Sid had bought. So it was a very cheerful Harry that came down for dinner at the end of the fifth day, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the occupants of the house though it was only the twins who understood the reason for Harry's cheerful mood. This led to further confusion on part of rest of the occupants because anything which made the twins cheerful generally ended up in either mayhem or a prank.

After the meal Harry asked all the occupants of the house to come to his room while he went ahead and transfigured his room according to the new requirements that would allow him to display all his new electronic toys and then opened the door to admit everyone in to his room.

The reaction that he got out of everyone almost had Harry laughing himself silly; almost. Soon the questions started. The loudest of the questioners were as he expected Hermione and Mr. Weasley who were wearing an expression of open curiosity and joy at seeing the electronic items at work. It was almost well into the night by the time Harry ended up explaining about every single one of the electronic item. He even showed them a little bit of Star Wars and a little game on Playstation2 before everyone decided to call it a night and retire to their respective rooms, though not before Harry pulled both Sirius and Remus aside and handed them their respective mobile phones telling them about why Harry bought it for them and how they could use it to talk to him instantly. That had both the men go misty eyed and hug him half to death for his thoughtfulness.

Next morning at breakfast, Harry had to yet again answer a whole lot of question from an eager Mr. Weasley who had an off on account of it being a weekend. This led to Harry explaining to everyone about his family's involvement in the field of Magitronics and their supposed role in the development of the Wizarding Wireless Network. He also told them about his aspiration to become a Spell-crafter and Enchanter. This seemed to please majority of the occupants in the room as all of them agreed that both were very valuable branches of magic that seemed to be losing its allure to the current generation of wizards and witches owing to the extensive amount of study and research involved.

By the end of the breakfast Sirius had given Harry carte blanche permission with respect to the Black family library to borrow or keep any book that he thought would help him in preparing for his aspired career. Though he did however warn Harry to scan all books thoroughly before touching any of them as he was not sure what sort of protective curses the books in his family library carried on them. To Harry's amusement this declaration seemed to make Hermione swell with barely suppressed jealously as he was sure she was itching to get into the Black family library but had not been given the permission.

Not long after Harry was yet again pestered upon by everyone to be allowed access to different electronic items whereas Hermione was the only one who wanted to take a look at Harry's so called trunk library. Harry was more than happy to agree to everyone's demands. He actually transfigured one of the rooms on the second floor permanently into sort of an entertainment centre. He setup a Television, a Desktop Computer, a VCR Player, a DVD Player and a set of Nintendo GameCube, Playstation2 and Xbox along with a shelf of DVDs and tapes so that those in the house could use them at their leisure. He even provided them a user manual which was modified in order to demonstrate how the electronic items were to be operated in a magical household. Suffice to say the room quickly became the most popular room of Grimmauld Place.

Though he never showed it outwardly, Harry was quite frankly dreading the whole confrontation with Dumbledore which he was sure would come one of these days. It wasn't that he would feel disappointed if Dumbledore didn't agree with his so called actions this summer, rather he was worried about ending up confronting Dumbledore about all that he had hidden from him.

So when Remus told him that morning about the Order meeting that was to be held later in the day, Harry immediately shut himself in his room trying to work out various scenarios and outcomes of his supposed meeting with the headmaster. That was why he was completely flabbergasted when he came down for dinner that day and found out that the headmaster had been told about his summer activities and except a look of deep contemplation he hadn't showed any other outward emotion or reaction. It was too good to be true according to Harry. But hey, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

So Harry spent the rest of the dinner being extra cheerful. He even challenged the twins to a best of three street fighter tournament which he won quiet magnificently. Happy for having avoided the headmaster for a foreseeable future, Harry went to bed that night very peacefully which meant that he had a comfortable sleep, free of any long black corridors.

The sight that met Harry's gaze first thing in the morning when he woke up almost made him curse himself for jinxing his luck. There sitting on his antique study table was Dumbledore's Phoenix Fawkes with a letter tied to its feet. Grumbling Harry got up from his bed and walked over to Fawkes and untied the letter and began to read.

Dear Harry,

I hope this letter finds you well. It has been brought to my attention that you have kept yourself rather busy this summer.

As much as I want to congratulate you on your positive and proactive thinking and approach, I cannot impress upon you enough about the dangers of taking such risks.

I know you did not mean to be careless or irresponsible but it is as the muggles say, prevention is better than cure.

There is a time and place for such forward thinking and approach Harry which definitely isn't now.

I hope you will keep these words of mine in mind before making any further drastic plans.

I am, yours most sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Harry wanted to bang his head against the wall repeatedly, but knew that it wouldn't do him any good. The letter was typical Dumbledore; never a straight forward approach. Instead he just grabbed a quill from his desk and wrote that he understood the headmaster's concerns and that he would act as is required of him on the back of the same parchment and tied it back to Fawkes' feet who immediately flashed away.

After breakfast that morning, Harry pulled the twins aside and told them about Dumbledore's letter and their reactions were much on the same lines as his. They both agreed that the only way to get the headmaster of his back was to simply play along with his plans and continue his real plans in private.

That evening Harry got another letter which happened to be from Madam Marchbanks who wrote to him to inform him that the tests that he was supposed to take in both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were set for the day after. Harry sent an immediate reply with the same owl saying that he would be there at the required time.

Harry spent the remaining time until his supposed exam at the ministry locked up in his room going over his Ancient Runes and Arithmancy texts just to make sure that he was clear about what was to be expected from a student who is supposed to be entering the OWL year in the two subjects.

On his day of exam at the ministry Harry was to be escorted there by Mr. Weasley. So once Mrs. Weasley had fretted over him for not eating enough and his friends had wished him good luck, Harry and Mr. Weasley took the tube service to get to the nearest public entrance to the ministry, which happened to be in Diagon Alley.

Once his wand was cleared at the security desk, Mr. Weasley took him straight to the office of the Wizarding Examinations Authority where they were met by the trio of Madam Marchbanks, Professor Vector and Professor Babbling. Mr. Weasley wished Harry good luck and left with a promise to see him once his tests were over in order to escort him back to Grimmauld Place.

Harry for his part practically breezed through his so called tests and by the time he was done both Professor Vector and Professor Babbling were literally grinning with barely contained enthusiasm for having a chance to work with a student as gifted and knowledgeable as Harry. Harry promised them that he would do his very best in both the subjects and that though he was an independent student, he would definitely keep in touch with the two professors over the coming year with respect to the two subjects, a fact that the two professors were very happy about. The only dull or bleak moment in his otherwise successful trip to the ministry was when an ugly short plump witch dressed in pink robes and cardigan by the name of Dolores Umbridge came into the department saying that Harry was not allowed to take the tests as he was not tutored by either a Hogwarts professor or a Ministry approved instructor. She was immediately put in place when Madam Marchbanks reminded her that she had been a part of the department from even before Umbridge was born and that senior undersecretary to the minister or not, nobody had any jurisdiction when it came to her department, as they were an autonomous body so as to promote fair treatment. Suffice to say, the Umbridge woman left the department with a look that made her look even uglier and toad like.

So when a beaming due of Mr. Weasley and Harry returned to Grimmauld Place and told everyone about Harry's experience at the ministry, surprisingly both Sirius and Mrs. Weasley teamed up to immediately throw an impromptu party for those present in the house on account of Harry's success. Harry spent the rest of the day in high spirit―laughing, chatting and having fun with all his friends.

The next big event or news was when Harry got an owl a few days later during lunch which turned out to be an invite for the birthday party of Susan Bones. Harry was pretty sure that it was Madam Bones who had invited him. What surprised him was how everyone present at Grimmauld Place reacted. Mostly everyone was majorly surprised that Harry would be invited to the birthday party of a classmate whom his friends were sure he wasn't on regular contact with whereas there were few like Sirius, Remus, Mr. Weasley and Tonks who thought that Harry should go to the party as it would be good to have the acquaintance and confidence of someone as senior as Madam Bones inside the ministry. Mrs. Weasley for her part was not too keen about Harry going out to attend a party in the present time.

So it was decided that Dumbledore would be contacted in this regard and consulted before arriving at a decision. They didn't have to wait too long as Dumbledore sent an immediate reply with Hedwig and it was one that reinforced Harry's idea of the fact that keeping stuff from the headmaster was indeed a good idea. Dumbledore politely but clearly had replied saying that he didn't think it was a good idea for Harry to attend the party as no matter how good it would be to have Madam Bones on their side, the risk of exposure was too much.

This led to another round of debate between everyone and Harry having finally lost his calm, tore into almost anyone and everyone who decided to stop him from going to the party. It wasn't that he was too keen on going to the party. Rather, it was the fact that everyone was trying to control his life is what ticked him off. Suffice to say that the days leading to Susan's party were tense for a lack of a better word in Harry's opinion. Though what did help his attitude was the fact that the twins, Sirius, Tonks and to his surprise Hermione had all taken his side when it came to the party issue.

The night before Susan's birthday when Harry came down for dinner, Mrs. Weasley tried yet again to make him reconsider his plans. Not wanting to lose his control, Harry politely excused himself saying that he was feeling rather sleepy and retreated back to his room despite the fact that he had barely eaten any of his dinner.

Once he got back to his dinner Harry realized that he actually wanted to go through with his excuse of wanting to get some extra sleep. As far as Harry was concerned there wasn't any problem in attending the party as even Sid would be there as he had found out when he had contacted Sid regarding Susan's birthday invite. So when Harry went to sleep that night the only question that was on his mind was what was it that Dumbledore had in mind? For some reason the way the headmaster had been reacting to anything concerning Harry told him that something was surely a miss and if he knew the headmaster, then it was easy enough to say that it was all part of some well thought out yet twisted plan. Harry was sure that he wanted no part in any of headmaster's plans and silently vowed to discuss it out with Sid. That was the last though that he had before he yet again found himself wandering down the long black corridor.

A/N: As always thank you for the wonderful responses. You all really know how to motivate an author.

And I'm really sorry for the delay. What with the all the festive mood and work, I just couldn't find the time to sit down and write peacefully.

I hope you like the new chapter.

Like I say every other time, let me know your thoughts and ideas via reviews or PMs.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller


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